1969 Northern Ireland general election

← 1965 24 February 1969 1973 →
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All 52 seats to theHouse of Commons of Northern Ireland 27 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Nat Leader Terence O'Neill Eddie McAteer Party UUP Nationalist Leader since 25 March 1963 2 June 1964 Leader's seat Bannside Foyle(Lost) Last election 36 seats, 59.1% 9 seats, 8.2% Seats won 36[a] 6 Seat change 3 Popular vote 269,501 42,315 Percentage 48.2% 7.6% Swing 10.9% 0.6%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Tom Boyd Gerry Fitt Party NI Labour Republican Labour Leader since 1958 1964 Leader's seat Belfast Pottinger(Lost) Belfast Dock Last election 2 seats, 20.4% 2 seats, 1.0% Seats won 2 2 Seat change Popular vote 45,113 13,115 Percentage 8.1% 1.4% Swing 12.3% 0.4%
Election results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Terence O'Neill UUP Prime Minister after election Terence O'Neill UUP

The1969 Northern Ireland general election was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to theParliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by theNorthern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.

This was the first (and only) election since the1929 general election to see changes to the constituencies. TheQueen's University of Belfast seat was abolished and four new constituencies were created in the suburbs ofBelfast to compensate for population growth there.

Unlike previous elections that produced a large unambiguous majority for theUlster Unionist Party, this one gave more complex results.

The Ulster Unionists were divided over a variety of reforms introduced by Prime MinisterTerence O'Neill and this division spilled over into the election with official Ulster Unionist candidates standing either in support of or opposition to O'Neill and a number ofUnofficial Unionists, who were independent pro O'Neill candidates standing against unsupportive Official Unionist candidates. The results left O'Neill without a clear majority for his reforms and he resigned not long afterwards.

The Nationalist Party that had for a long time represented the bulk of the Catholic minority faced strong challenges and two of its leading figures were defeated. The leaderEddie McAteer lostFoyle to the independentJohn Hume^[1] andPaddy Gormley lostMid Londonderry to the independentIvan Cooper.^[1] Both Hume and Cooper would go on to form theSocial Democratic and Labour Party which would take over the Nationalist mantle.

Ian Paisley'sProtestant Unionist Party that was broadly opposed to O'Neill's agenda on civil rights, put up a number of candidates. Although none of them were returned O'Neill was almost defeated by Paisley inBannside a seat that had not been contested since 1949. Paisley gained the seat at a 1970 by-election.

Due to the local selection rules a number of anti-O'Neill candidates managed to get reselected or selected for seats. Many of them were opposed by 17unofficial Unionist candidates supporting O'Neill,^[2] often backed by theNew Ulster Movement. They won three seats^[3] -Belfast Clifton (where the sitting Unionist MP for was forbidden by a court order from referring to himself as the official Unionist candidate because of a violation of the rules at his selection meeting);Bangor andBelfast Willowfield.

Northern Ireland General Election 1969
Party		Candidates						Votes
		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	UUP	44	36[a]	4	4	0	69.2	48.2	269,501	-10.9
	Unofficial Unionist	15	3	3	0	+3	5.8	12.9	72,120	+12.9
	NI Labour	16	2	1	1	0	3.8	8.1	45,113	-12.3
	Nationalist	9	6	0	3	-3	11.5	7.6	42,315	-0.6
	National Democratic	7	0	0	1	-1		4.6	26,009	-0.1
	People's Democracy	8	0	0	0	0		4.2	23,645	+4.2
	Independent	4	3	3	1	+2	5.8	3.9	21,977	+3.9
	Protestant Unionist	5	0	0	0	0		3.8	20,991	+3.8
	Ind. Unionist	3	0	0	0	0		2.5	13,932	+2.5
	Republican Labour	5	2	1	1	0	3.8	2.4	13,115	+1.4
	Ulster Liberal	2	0	0	1	-1		1.3	7,337	-2.6
	People's Progressive	1	0	0	0	0		0.5	2,992	+0.5

Electorate: 912,087 (778,031 in contested seats); Turnout: 71.9% (559,087).

• List of members of the 12th House of Commons of Northern Ireland

• 1969 elections in the United Kingdom
• General elections to the Parliament of Northern Ireland
• February 1969 in the United Kingdom
• 1969 elections in Northern Ireland

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