1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election

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All 78 seats to theNorthern Ireland Assembly 40 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   UUP Leader James Molyneaux Ian Paisley John Hume Party UUP DUP SDLP Leader since September 1979 September 1971 November 1979 Leader's seat South Antrim North Antrim Londonderry Last election 33 seats, 38.1%[a] 12 seats, 14.8% 17 seats, 23.7% Seats won 26 21 14 Seat change 5[b] 9 3 Popular vote 188,277 145,528 118,891 Percentage 29.7% 23.0% 18.8% Swing 9.2%[b] 8.2% 4.9%   Fourth party Fifth party   APN Leader Oliver Napier Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Party Alliance Sinn Féin Leader since 1972 October 1970 Leader's seat Belfast East None Last election 8 seats, 9.8% Did not contest Seats won 10 5 Seat change 2 5 Popular vote 58,851 64,191 Percentage 9.3% 10.1% Swing 0.5% n/a
Chief Executive before election None Chief Executive after election None

Politics of Northern Ireland
Interim bodies
Northern Ireland Assembly (1973) Northern Ireland Executive (1974) Constitutional Convention (1975) Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) Northern Ireland Forum (1996)
Elections
1973 1975 1982 1996
Members
1973 1975 1982 1996
See also
Anglo-Irish Agreement New Ireland Forum 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections 1973 Northern Ireland border poll
Other countries
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The1982 Northern Ireland Assembly elections were held on 20 October 1982 in an attempt to re-establishdevolution and power-sharing inNorthern Ireland.^[1] Although theNorthern Ireland Assembly officially lasted until 1986 (and was seen as being a continuation of theNorthern Ireland Constitutional Convention of 1975) it met infrequently.

Theelectoral system proved to be hugely controversial. While there was general acceptance that the elections should take part using theSingle Transferable Vote system, the decision to use the same twelve constituency boundaries used in the1973 Assembly election rather than the new seventeen constituency boundaries which were later adopted in the1983 general election was heavily criticised.^{[by whom?]} The issue was that theBoundary Commission for Northern Ireland's Final Recommendations, which recommended that all future Assembly elections should be held using seventeen constituencies each electing five members, had not yet been approved byParliament and therefore remained, technically, provisional recommendations.^{[citation needed]}

The consequence of this was that the elections were held using constituencies which varied greatly in size and electorate with different numbers of seats, ranging fromBelfast West with an electorate of 57,726 and four members toSouth Antrim with an electorate of 131,734 and ten members. In the latter constituency this resulted in huge administrative problems with a record 27 candidates standing necessitating 23 counts over 36 hours with the count not completed until two days after the election.^{[citation needed]}

On theUnionist side, the Assembly was welcomed, with some^[who?] hailing it nostalgically as 'a newStormont'. Consequently, manyNationalists were suspicious of the new body. TheIrish Independence Party, which had moderate electoral success in the elections of the previous year, immediately announced that they would boycott the elections and called on other nationalists to follow suit. HoweverSinn Féin was keen to test its electoral support and both it and theSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced that they would contest the elections but refuse to take any seats which they won. The smallerPeople's Democracy, which had won two council seats in an electoral alliance with theIrish Republican Socialist Party the previous year, did likewise.

Great interest centred on the performance of Sinn Féin, fighting its first full election and on the inter-Unionist rivalry between theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) and theUlster Unionist Party (UUP). The former had pulled ahead in the European election of 1979 and the Local Council Elections of 1981 but had suffered a setback in the1982 by-election which followed the murder ofRobert Bradford.

The results were seen as a triumph for the new electoral strategy of Sinn Féin which gained 5 seats and narrowly missed winning seats inBelfast North andFermanagh and South Tyrone. The SDLP were disappointed with their 14 seats and one of these was subsequently lost in a by-election to the UUP asSeamus Mallon was disqualified following a successful UUP election petition on the grounds that he was ineligible as he was a member ofSeanad Éireann at the time.

On the Unionist side the UUP gained a clear lead over the DUP, while theUnited Ulster Unionist Party failed to make an impact and, as a result, folded two years later. In thecentreAlliance Party consolidated with 10 seats including unexpected wins in North and West Belfast. TheWorkers' Party failed to make a breakthrough despite respectable vote shares in places like North and West Belfast.

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	%	+/-
	UUP	188,277	29.7	-9.2[b]	26	33.8	-5[b]
	DUP	145,528	23.0	+8.2	21	27.3	+9
	SDLP	118,891	18.8	-4.9	14	18.2	-3
	Sinn Féin	64,191	10.1	—	5	6.5	+5
	Alliance	58,851	9.3	-0.5	10	13.0	+2
	Workers' Party	17,216	2.7	+0.5	0	—	0
	UPUP	14,916	2.3	-1.2	1	1.3	0
	UUUP	11,550	1.8		0	—	0
	Ind. Unionist	9,567	1.5	—	1	1.3	+1
	Independent SDLP	2,052	0.3	-0.3	0	—	0
	Independent	745	0.1	—	0	—	0
	Ecology	707	0.1	—	0	—	0
	Newtownabbey Labour	560	0.1	—	0	—	0
	People's Democracy	442	0.1	—	0	—	0
	Communist	415	0.1	—	0	—	0
	Ulster Liberal	65	0.0	—	0	—	0
	Peace	19	0.0	—	0	—	0
Total		633,120	100.0	0	78	100.0	0
Source:Ark

• Members of the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly

• Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 1982
• Full Counting Details

• Northern Ireland Assembly (1982)
• 1982 elections in the United Kingdom
• October 1982 in Europe
• 1982 elections in Northern Ireland
• 1982 controversies
• Elections in Northern Ireland

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