2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election

2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election
← 1998 26 November 2003 2007 →

All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
Turnout63.1% Decrease 6.7%
  First party Second party Third party
 
DrIanPaisley.jpg
David Trimble.jpg
Gerry Adams, October 2005 (cropped).jpg
Leader Ian Paisley David Trimble Gerry Adams
Party DUP Ulster Unionist Sinn Féin
Leader since 30 September 1971 8 September 1995 13 November 1983
Leader's seat North Antrim Upper Bann Belfast West
Last election 20 seats, 18.5% 28 seats, 21.3% 18 seats, 16.7%
Seats won 30 27 24
Seat change Increase10 Decrease1 Increase6
Popular vote 177,944 156,931 162,758
Percentage 25.7% 22.7% 23.5%
Swing Increase7.2% Increase1.4% Increase6.8%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
MarkDurkan.jpg
DavidFordAlliance.jpg
PUP
Leader Mark Durkan David Ford David Ervine
Party SDLP Alliance PUP
Leader since 10 November 2001 6 October 2001 2002
Leader's seat Foyle South Antrim Belfast East
Last election 24 seats, 22.0% 6 seats, 5.6% 2 seats, 2.6%
Seats won 18 6 1
Seat change Decrease6 Steady0 Decrease1
Popular vote 117,547 25,372 8,032
Percentage 17.0% 3.7% 1.2%
Swing Decrease5.0% Decrease1.9% Decrease1.4%

  Seventh party
 
UKUP
Leader Robert McCartney
Party UK Unionist
Leader since 1995
Leader's seat North Down
Last election 5 seats, 4.5%
Seats won 1
Seat change Decrease4
Popular vote 5,700
Percentage 0.8%
Swing Decrease3.7%

Election results. Voters elect 6 assembly members from the 18 constituencies.

First Minister before election

Suspended

First Minister after election

Suspended

The 2003 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 eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates.

Background

The election was originally planned for May 2003, but was delayed by Paul Murphy, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Several sitting MLAs stood under a different label to the one they had used in the 1998 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 nationalists Sinn Féin, who had overtaken the SDLP in terms of votes and seats at the 2001 United Kingdom general election. 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."

Results

On the unionist side, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) became Northern Ireland's biggest party for the first time in any election, overtaking the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). They gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller unionist parties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes, winning thirty overall. 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 and Arlene Foster, quit the party and later defected to the DUP.

On the nationalist side, Sinn Féin saw a big increase in their vote, gaining six seats at the net expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, for a total of 24 seats.

The minor parties all saw a significant fall in their support. The Alliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote falling by a third, the Women's Coalition, United Unionist Coalition and Northern Ireland Unionist Party were all wiped out, and the Progressive Unionist Party and UK 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 in West Tyrone with the election of the independent Kieran Deeny, a doctor campaigning on the single issue of hospital provision in Omagh.

Result by constituencies
Preferable vote.
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
DUP177,94425.6630Increase10
Sinn Féin162,75823.4724Increase6
UUP156,93122.6327Decrease1
SDLP117,54716.9518Decrease6
Alliance25,3723.666Steady0
PUP8,0321.161Decrease1
NI Women's Coalition5,7850.830Decrease2
UK Unionist5,7000.821Decrease4
United Unionist Council2,7050.39
Green (NI)2,6880.39
Socialist Environmental Alliance2,3940.35
Workers' Party1,8810.27
NI Conservatives1,6040.23
NI Unionist1,3500.19
Socialist Party3430.05
Vote For Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket1240.02
Ulster Third Way160.00
Independent20,2342.921Increase1
Total693,408100.00108
Registered voters/turnout1,097,52663.05
Source: ARK

Distribution of seats by constituency

Party affiliation of the six Assembly members returned by each constituency. The first column indicates the party of the Member of the House of Commons (MP) returned by the corresponding parliamentary constituency in the 2001 United Kingdom general election under the first-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 –2 NIWC
Elected on 25 June 1998 108 6 20 2 24 18 5 28 3 2 NIWC

This page was last updated at 2024-02-13 08:30 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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