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All 108 seats to theNorthern Ireland Assembly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 63.1% 6.7%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Seats won by each party and combined first preference vote share of the largest party. Break down of each party and community's seats in constituenciesElection results. Voters elect 6 assembly members from the 18 constituencies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| This article is part ofa series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the |
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Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland |
The2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 26 November 2003, after being suspended for just over a year. It was the second election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. Each of Northern Ireland's eighteenWestminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members bysingle transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates.
The election was originally planned for May 2003,[2] but was delayed byPaul Murphy, theSecretary of State for Northern Ireland.[2]
Several sitting MLAs stood under a different label to the one they had used in the1998 election. Some had failed to be selected by their parties to stand and so stood as independents, whilst others had changed parties during the course of the assembly. Most of these realignments occurred within the unionist parties, with several defections between existing parties, and two new parties being formed – the United Unionist Coalition (formed by the three MLAs elected as independent unionists, though one later joined the DUP) and the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (formed by four of the five MLAs elected as the UK Unionist Party, though one later left them, joined the DUP for a period, then contested the election as an independent unionist).
The SDLP, which had been Northern Ireland's dominant Irish nationalist party during the 1980s and 1990s, went into this election with concerns that they could lose numerous seats to fellow nationalistsSinn Féin, who had overtaken the SDLP in terms of votes and seats at the2001 United Kingdom general election.[3][4][5] Commentator, Brian Feeney, said: "The SDLP has a series of baronial figures -John Hume,Seamus Mallon,Eddie McGrady - who hung on to power and didn't groom their successors early enough. They just don't have enough people on the ground in some areas of the province. Sinn Féin, by contrast, has deliberately cultivated collective leadership, bringing forward wave after wave of young, articulate, highly politicised heirs apparent, and their grassroots organisation is awesome."[6]
On theunionist side, theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) became Northern Ireland's biggest party for the first time in any election, overtaking theUlster Unionist Party (UUP). They gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller unionist parties,[7] to become the largest party both in seats and votes, winning thirty overall.[8] The UUP increased their vote slightly, despite slipping to third place in first preference votes, and won 27 seats, a net loss of one. Shortly after the election three Ulster Unionist MLAs,Jeffrey Donaldson,Norah Beare andArlene Foster, quit the party[9][10] and later defected to the DUP.[11]
On thenationalist side,Sinn Féin saw a big increase in their vote, gaining six seats at the net expense of theSocial Democratic and Labour Party,[7] for a total of 24 seats.[1]
The minor parties all saw a significant fall in their support. TheAlliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote falling by a third, theWomen's Coalition,United Unionist Coalition andNorthern Ireland Unionist Party were all wiped out, and theProgressive Unionist Party andUK Unionist Party won just one seat each. Neither the United Unionist Assembly Party nor the Northern Ireland Unionists won any seats.
The biggest surprise of the election came inWest Tyrone with the election of the independentKieran Deeny, a doctor campaigning on the single issue of hospital provision inOmagh.[12]
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| DUP | 177,944 | 25.66 | 30 |  10 | |
| Sinn Féin | 162,758 | 23.47 | 24 | 6 | |
| UUP | 156,931 | 22.63 | 27 | 1 | |
| SDLP | 117,547 | 16.95 | 18 | 6 | |
| Alliance | 25,372 | 3.66 | 6 |  0 | |
| PUP | 8,032 | 1.16 | 1 | 1 | |
| NI Women's Coalition | 5,785 | 0.83 | 0 | 2 | |
| UK Unionist | 5,700 | 0.82 | 1 | 4 | |
| United Unionist Council | 2,705 | 0.39 | – | – | |
| Green (NI) | 2,688 | 0.39 | – | – | |
| Socialist Environmental Alliance | 2,394 | 0.35 | – | – | |
| Workers' Party | 1,881 | 0.27 | – | – | |
| NI Conservatives | 1,604 | 0.23 | – | – | |
| NI Unionist | 1,350 | 0.19 | – | – | |
| Socialist Party | 343 | 0.05 | – | – | |
| Vote For Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket | 124 | 0.02 | – | – | |
| Ulster Third Way | 16 | 0.00 | – | – | |
| Independent | 20,234 | 2.92 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 693,408 | 100.00 | 108 | – | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,097,526 | 63.05 | |||
| Source:ARK | |||||
Party affiliation of the six Assembly members returned by each constituency. The first column indicates the party of the Member of theHouse of Commons (MP) returned by the corresponding parliamentary constituency in the2001 United Kingdom general election under thefirst-past-the-post voting method.
| Party of MP, 2001 | Constituency | Northern Ireland Assembly seats | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gained by | Formerly held by | |||||||||||
| APNI | DUP | PUP | SDLP | Sinn Féin | UKU | UUP | Ind. | ||||||
| DUP | North Antrim | 6 | – | 3 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | – | SF | UUP | |
| UUP | East Antrim | 6 | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | DUP | UKU | |
| DUP | SDLP | ||||||||||||
| UUP | South Antrim | 6 | 1 | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | 2 | – | DUP | UKU | |
| DUP | Belfast North | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 2 | – | 1 | – | DUP | Ind. U. | |
| SF | PUP | ||||||||||||
| Sinn Féin | Belfast West | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 4 | – | – | – | DUP | SDLP | |
| UUP | Belfast South | 6 | – | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – | 2 | – | SF | NIWC | |
| DUP | Belfast East | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | |
| UUP | North Down | 6 | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | 1 | 2 | – | DUP | UUP | |
| DUP | NIWC | ||||||||||||
| DUP | Strangford | 6 | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | DUP | UKU | |
| UUP | Lagan Valley | 6 | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | 3 | – | UUP | UKU | |
| UUP | Upper Bann | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | – | DUP | Ind. U. | |
| SDLP | South Down | 6 | – | 1 | – | 2 | 2 | – | 1 | – | SF | SDLP | |
| SDLP | Newry and Armagh | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 3 | – | 1 | – | SF | SDLP | |
| Sinn Féin | Fermanagh & South Tyrone | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 2 | – | 2 | – | – | – | |
| Sinn Féin | West Tyrone | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | Ind. O. | SDLP | |
| Sinn Féin | Mid Ulster | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 3 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| SDLP | Foyle | 6 | – | 1 | – | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| DUP | East Londonderry | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | – | DUP | Ind. U. | |
| SF | SDLP | ||||||||||||
| Total | 108 | 6 | 30 | 1 | 18 | 24 | 1 | 27 | 1 | ||||
| Change since 1998 | – | – | + 10 | – 1 | – 6 | + 6 | – 4 | − 1 | – 2 | –2NIWC | – | ||
| Elected on 25 June 1998 | 108 | 6 | 20 | 2 | 24 | 18 | 5 | 28 | 3 | 2NIWC | – | ||
Once secure as the mainstream nationalist group, the party is being warned that Sinn Féin has stolen its thunder
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