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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 |
The2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of theSt Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) andSinn Féin, along with theAlliance Party, increase their support, with falls in support for theUlster Unionist Party (UUP) and theSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
The 2007 election was held using STV and 18 multi-seat districts, each electing 6 members.
At the2003 election the DUP became the largest party. As it opposed the Belfast Agreement, there was no prospect of the assembly voting for the First and Deputy First Ministers. Therefore, theBritish Government did not restore power to the Assembly and theelected members never met. Instead there commenced a protracted series of negotiations. During these negotiations a legally separate assembly, known asThe Assembly consisting of the members elected in 2003 was formed in May 2006[1] to enable the parties to negotiate and to prepare for government.
Eventually, in October 2006, the governments and the parties, including the DUP, made theSt Andrews Agreement and a newtransitional assembly came into effect on 24 November 2006.[2] The British government agreed to fresh elections and the transitional assembly was dissolved on 30 January 2007, after which campaigning began.[3]
The election was conducted using thesingle transferable vote applied to six-seat constituencies, each of which corresponds to a UKparliamentary seat. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister were chosen by the largest parties from the two different political designations. Parties who won seats were then allocated places on the executive committee in proportion to their seats in the Assembly using theD'Hondt method.
The major parties standing were theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) and theUlster Unionist Party (UUP) on theUnionist side, andSinn Féin and theSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) on theNationalist side.
The largest cross-community party, theAlliance Party of Northern Ireland, contested the election in 17 of 18 constituencies. Smaller parties also included theProgressive Unionist Party, theGreen Party and theUK Unionist Party. Someindependent Unionists also stood.
Among the other parties that stood, theConservatives nominated nine and there were six candidates for theWorkers' Party. Also there were four candidates forMake Politicians History and two for theSocialist Party. SixRepublican Sinn Féin-aligned candidates also stood. As the party had chosen not to register as a political party with the electoral commission, the party name did not appear alongside its candidates on ballot papers.[4]
One of the key issues in the election was which two political parties would gain the largest number of Assembly seats. The St Andrews Agreement stated that the First Minister will be chosen from the largest party of the largest political designation and the Deputy First Minister from the largest party from the second largest political designation;[5] however, the actual legislation states that the largest party shall make the nomination regardless of designation.[6]
The DUP remained the largest party in the Assembly, making significant gains from the UUP.
Sinn Féin made gains from the SDLP and was the largest party among the Nationalists.
The only other Assembly Party to make gains was the liberal Alliance Party (winning seven seats, a gain of one), while theProgressive Unionist Party and independent health campaigner DrKieran Deeny retained their single seats, and were joined by the Green Party, which won its first Assembly seat, and increased its first preference votes fourfold from 2003.
The UK Unionist Party lost its representation in the Assembly. They had contested 12 seats, withRobert McCartney standing in six of them.[7]
Overall, Unionist parties were collectively down 4 seats, Nationalist parties were collectively up 2 seats, and others were up 2 seats.
The election was notable as it saw the firstChinese-born person to be elected to a parliamentary institution in Europe:Anna Lo of the Alliance Party.[8][9]
  | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | |||||
| Assembly | +/– | Executive | |||||||
| Democratic Unionist Party | 207,721 | 30.09 | +4.4 | 36 | +6 | 5 | |||
| Sinn Féin | 180,573 | 26.16 | +2.6 | 28 | +4 | 4 | |||
| Social Democratic and Labour Party | 105,164 | 15.23 | −1.8 | 16 | -2 | 1 | |||
| Ulster Unionist Party | 103,145 | 14.94 | −7.7 | 18 | -9 | 2 | |||
| Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | 36,139 | 5.24 | +1.5 | 7 | +1 | – | |||
| Green Party in Northern Ireland | 11,985 | 1.74 | +1.3 | 1 | +1 | – | |||
| UK Unionist Party | 10,452 | 1.51 | +0.7 | – | -1 | – | |||
| Progressive Unionist Party | 3,822 | 0.55 | −0.6 | 1 | – | – | |||
| Northern Ireland Conservatives | 3,457 | 0.50 | +0.3 | – | – | – | |||
| Republican Sinn Féin | 2,522 | 0.37 | – | – | – | ||||
| Socialist Environmental Alliance | 2,045 | 0.30 | −0.1 | – | – | – | |||
| UK Independence Party | 1,229 | 0.18 | – | – | – | ||||
| Workers' Party | 975 | 0.14 | −0.1 | – | – | – | |||
| People Before Profit Alliance | 774 | 0.11 | – | – | – | ||||
| Socialist Party | 473 | 0.07 | +0.1 | – | – | – | |||
| Make Politicians History | 221 | 0.03 | – | – | – | ||||
| Labour Party of Northern Ireland | 123 | 0.02 | – | – | – | ||||
| Pro Capitalism | 22 | 0.00 | – | – | – | ||||
| Independent | 19,471 | 2.82 | +1.9 | 1 | – | – | |||
| Total | 690,313 | 100.00 | – | 108 | 0 | 12 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,107,904 | 62.31 | |||||||
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 the2005 United Kingdom general election under thefirst-past-the-post voting method.
| Party of MP, 2005 | Constituency | Northern Ireland Assembly seats | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gained by | Formerly held by | |||||||||||
| APNI | DUP | PUP | SDLP | Sinn Féin | Green | UUP | Ind. | ||||||
| DUP | North Antrim | 6 | – | 3 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| DUP | East Antrim | 6 | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | |
| DUP | South Antrim | 6 | 1 | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | – | SF | UUP | |
| DUP | Belfast North | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| Sinn Féin | Belfast West | 6 | – | – | – | 1 | 5 | – | – | – | SF | DUP | |
| SDLP | Belfast South | 6 | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – | Alliance | UUP | |
| DUP | Belfast East | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | – | DUP | UUP | |
| UUP | North Down | 6 | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | 1 | 2 | – | Green | UKU | |
| DUP | Strangford | 6 | 1 | 4 | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | DUP | UUP | |
| DUP | Lagan Valley | 6 | 1 | 3 | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | – | SF | SDLP | |
| DUP | UUP | ||||||||||||
| DUP | UUP | ||||||||||||
| DUP | Upper Bann | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | – | – | – | |
| SDLP | South Down | 6 | – | 1 | – | 2 | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| Sinn Féin | Newry and Armagh | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 3 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| Sinn Féin | Fermanagh & South Tyrone | 6 | – | 2 | – | 1 | 2 | – | 1 | – | DUP | UUP | |
| Sinn Féin | West Tyrone | 6 | – | 2 | – | – | 3 | – | – | 1 | SF | SDLP | |
| DUP | UUP | ||||||||||||
| Sinn Féin | Mid Ulster | 6 | – | 1 | – | 1 | 3 | – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| SDLP | Foyle | 6 | – | 1 | – | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| DUP | East Londonderry | 6 | – | 3 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | – | DUP | UUP | |
| Total | 108 | 7 | 36 | 1 | 16 | 28 | 1 | 18 | 1 | ||||
| Change since 2003 | – | + 1 | + 6 | – | – 2 | + 4 | + 1 | − 9 | – | –1UKU | – | ||
| Elected on 23 November 2003 | 108 | 6 | 30 | 1 | 18 | 24 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 5UKU | 2NIWC | ||
| Elected on 25 June 1998 | 108 | 6 | 20 | 2 | 24 | 18 | 0 | 28 | 3 | 5UKU | 2NIWC | ||
Parties who won seats are allocated places on theExecutive Committee using the D'Hondt method and under the St Andrews agreement the largest party gets the right to nominate the first minister and the largest party perceived to be from "the other side" nominates the deputy first minister. Despite the name these offices are in fact of equal right. Note that they are both ministers in the same department (Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister). Using this system, the executive appointed in 2007 was as follows:
There are two junior ministers in OFMDFM who are, at present, Jeffery Donaldson (DUP) and Gerry Kelly (SF). In April 2010, the Department of Justice was formed, being led by David Ford from the Alliance Party. This is the Alliance Party's first ministerial role.
Anopinion poll byIpsos MORI, published inThe Belfast Telegraph on 1 March 2007, reported the voting intentions of those who intended to vote and had decided which party to vote for:[12]
| Party | Percentage | Actual Vote | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DUP | 25 | 30 | |
| Sinn Féin | 22 | 26 | |
| SDLP | 20 | 15 | |
| UUP | 16 | 15 | |
| Alliance | 9 | 5 | |
| Green (NI) | 3 | 2 | |
| Conservative | 1 | 0.5 | |
| UK Unionist | 1 | 1.5 | |
| PUP | 1 | 0.6 | |
| Independent | 1 | 3 | |
Notes: Berry and Ennis were originally elected as DUP candidates, Hyland was originally elected as a Sinn Féin candidate.
†Patricia Lewsley stood down prior to the dissolution of the assembly
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↑ As a sitting MLA, Norah Beare defected from the UUP to the DUP, and is therefore unselected rather than deselected.[clarification needed]
Following their de-selection, both Ennis and Hyland unsuccessfully sought election under the UKUP and independent labels respectively.
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