Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998

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The first elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on June 25, 1998. Six members were elected by Single Transferable Vote from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, giving a total of 108 MLAs, or Members of the Legislative Assembly.

[edit] Results

The result was (first preference votes only):

Image:Northernirelandassembly asof Jun 1998.PNG

Party Leader Seats Number % of vote Rank
Social Democratic & Labour John Hume 24 177,963 21.99 1
Ulster Unionist David Trimble 28 172,225 21.28 2
Democratic Unionist Ian Paisley 20 145,917 18.03 3
Sinn Féin Gerry Adams 18 142,858 17.65 4
Alliance (NI) David Ford 6 52,636 6.5 5
UK Unionist Robert McCartney 5 36,541 4.52 6
Independent Unionists 3 24,339 3.0 7
Progressive Unionist David Ervine 2 20,634 2.55 8
NI Women's Coalition Monica McWilliams 2 13,019 1.61 9
Ulster Democratic Gary McMichael 0 8,651 1.07 10
Independent 0 5,392 *
Labour NI 0 2,729 0.34 11
Workers Party 0 1,989 0.25 12
Conservative 0 1,835 0.23 13
Ulster Independence Movement Hugh Ross 0 1,227 0.15 17 *
Natural Law 0 832 0.10 18
Socialist 0 789 0.10 19
Green (NI) 0 710 0.09 20
 Total 108 786,132 100.0

All parties with over 500 votes listed.

¹ Independent candidates were ranked 14, 15 and 16; other independents won fewer than 500 votes.

[edit] Details

Although the SDLP won the most first preference votes, the Ulster Unionists won the most seats in the Assembly. This has been attributed to several reasons, including:

  • Slightly differential turnouts across the province, with the result that in the more staunchly unionist east fewer votes were required to elect an MLA than in the SDLP's heartlands in the west.
  • The Ulster Unionists proved better at "vote balancing" whereby in the rounds of transfers their candidates were less likely to be eliminated earlier on.
  • The Ulster Unionists proved better at attracting transfers from other parties (and due to the vote balancing mentioned above, were more likely to be a position to benefit from this)

[edit] See also

Elections in Northern Ireland Flag of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Assembly: 1998 | 2003 | 2007
Northern Ireland House of Commons: 1921 | 1925 | 1929 | 1933 | 1938 | 1945 | 1949 | 1953 | 1958 | 1962 | 1965 | 1969
Other elections: 1973 Assembly | 1975 Constitutional Convention | 1982 Assembly | 1996 Forum
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