Map and diagram by Conal Kelly

This constituency takes in the whole of Coleraine and Limavady District Councils, and two wards of Derry City Council. In 2001 the DUP's Gregory Campbell defeated William Ross (UUP), who had represented East Londonderry since it was formed in 1983. The DUP hold three Assembly seats here, and the SDLP and Sinn Fein one each with the last held by independent David McClarty (he held his seat, having previously won for the UUP, in 2011; the DUP gained from the UUP in 2007; the DUP and SF had both made gains in 2003 from the SDLP and an Independent Unionist). See the 1983-92 East Londonderry results.

East Londonderry's population in the 2001 census was 88,737 (11th of the 18 constituencies).

• The average age was 35.55 (11th highest).
• 34.74% described themselves as Catholic (11th of 18 constituencies); 26.07% as Presbyterian (7th highest), 19.02% as Church of Ireland (6th highest), 1.27% as Methodist (14th highest) and 5.21% as members of other Christian denominations (10th highest). 13.44% were "no religion or religion not stated" (9th highest).
• The translation into "Community background" was 37.94% Catholic (11th out of 18), 59.23% Protestants and other Christians (8th highest), 0.34% other religions and philosophies (11th highest) and 2.49% none (9th).

NB that the figures for elections before 2010 are projections onto the new boundaries.

2011 Assembly election (six seats)

The UUP's deselection of sitting MLA David McClarty proved a serious mistake, as he stood and won his seat back as an independent, his former party losing ourt entirely in a seat that they held at Westminster until ten years previously. The DUP's Adrian McQuillan took the last seat by 320 votes ahead of the UUP's David Harding, with an SDLP surplus of 246 undistributed (which would probably have made little difference).

2011 local government election

2010 Westminster Election (one seat)

*@Gregory Campbell (DUP) 12,097 (34.6%, -6.4%)
Cathal Ó hOisín (Sinn Féin) 6,742 (19.3%, +1.9%)
Lesley Macaulay (UCUNF) 6,218 (17.8%, -1.9%)
Thomas Conway (SDLP) 5,399 (15.5% -3.8%)
William Ross (TUV) 2,572 (7.4%)
Barney Fitzpatrick (Alliance) 1,922 (5.5%, +3.1%)
Electorate: 63,220; Total Poll: 35,086 (55.5%); Invalid Votes: 136 (0.4%); Valid Votes: 34,950

The DUP suffered minor erosion here, but as in so many other places, TUV simply failed to break in, even though their candidate had represented this area at Westminster for 27 years. In a six-seat Assembly election, these votes would make the DUP's third seat vulnerable to either TUV or Alliance.

2007 Assembly Election

2005 Westminster Election (5 May, 1 seat)

*@Gregory Campbell (DUP) 15,225 (42.9% +10.8%)
@David McClarty (UUP) 7,498 (21.1% -6.3%)
@John Dallat (SDLP) 6,077 (17.1% -3.7%)
Billy Leonard (Sinn Fein) 5,709 (16.1% +0.5%)
Yvonne Boyle (Alliance) 924 (2.6% -1.5%)
Malcolm Samuel (Independent) 71 (0.2% +0.2%)

* outgoing MP.
@ Member of the Assembly

Not a surprise. These votes, if cast in a six-seat STV election, would probably have given the DUP three seats and the UUP, Sinn Fein and SDLP one each.

2005 Local Government Election (5 May)

First preference votes cast in the whole of the Coleraine and Limavady council areas were as follows:

DUP 11295 (32.1%)
UUP 8573 (24.3%)
Sinn Fein 5864 (16.6%)
SDLP 5764 (16.4%)
United Unionist Coalition 1328 (3.8%) Best equivalent result in Northern Ireland
Alliance 1026 (2.9%)
Independents 1388 (3.9%)

It is easy enough to extrapolate from the local council elections because the East Londonderry constituency includes two whole district councils. On these votes the DUP would win two seats, the UUP probably also two, and Sinn Fein and the SDLP one each.

2003 Assembly election (26 November; six seats)

Reaction: As widely predicted, sitting MLA's Pauline Armitage, Boyd Douglas and Michael Coyle lost their seats; the DUP and SF gained. Better balancing by the DUP could conceivably have got them a third seat ahead of the UUP's Hillis; better balancing by the UUP would of course have reduced any such threat. The final margin was Dallat's 218 votes ahead of his running-mate Coyle; two counts earlier, Coyle had edged out the DUP's Bradley by 153 votes but in fact this was only for the honour of being runner-up.

East Londonderry had lost 9.12% of its electorate in the great electoral register shake-out, varying from 15.16% in the Cross Glebe ward of Coleraine to 4.99% in Ringsend, also in Coleraine. 5 constituencies lost fewer voters, 12 lost more.

2001 Westminster Election (7 June; 1 seat)

Electorate: 60,215; votes cast: 40,268 (66.8%), spoilt votes: 399 (0.9%);
Valid votes: 39,869; DUP majority 1,901

* outgoing MP
@ member of the Assembly

2001 Local Government Election (7 June)

UUP 11157 (28%)
DUP 9459 (24%)
SDLP 9216 (23%)
SF 3784 (10%)
Alliance 1579 (4%)
UUAP 1351 (3%) Best equivalent result in Northern Ireland
PUP 146 (0.4%)
Independents 3019 (8%)
Total valid votes 39711

If these votes had been cast in a six-seat STV election, the UUP and DUP would have won two seats each, and the SDLP one. Sinn Fein would be the most likely to pick up the last seat.

1998 Assembly Election (25 June; six seats)

* elected in 1996 Forum/talks election from East Londonderry
# elected in 1996 Forum/talks election as a 'top-up' candidate

Boyd Douglas, an independent Unionist opposed to the Agreement, performed well enough to take one of the Unionist seats with transfers from other Unionists. Good vote management by the SDLP ensured that they stayed ahead of SF to win the other two. The order of the candidates did not change much during the count and the DUP were the runners-up, George Robinson finishing with 3,867 votes to Boyd Douglas's 4,260.

1997 Local Government Election

Ulster Unionist Party 13,598 votes (35%)
Social Democratic and Labour Party 9,565 votes (25%)
Democratic Unionist Party 7,218 votes (18%)
Sinn Féin 3,373 votes (9%)
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 1,738 votes (5%)
Women's Coalition 146 votes (0.38%)
Workers Party 53 votes (0.14%)
Others 1,689 votes (4%)
Total valid votes 38,436 (57.38% of electorate)

1997 Westminster Election (one seat)

1996 Forum Election (five seats)

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 11,386 (31%); David Brewster, Robert White elected
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 8,768 (24%); Robert Bolton, Robert Stewart elected
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 7,451 (20%); Arthur Doherty elected
Sinn Féin (SF) 3,413 (9%)
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) 2,107 (6%)
United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) 1,040 (3%)
Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) 728 (2%)
Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) 652 (2%)
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) 375 (1%)
Labour (Lab) 241 (1%)
Conservative Party (Con) 208 (1%)
Green Party 189 (1%)
Ulster Independence Movement (UIM) 100 (0.27%)
Workers Party (WP) 75 (0.20%)
Democratic Left (DL) 45 (0.12%)
Natural Law Party (NLP) 14
Independent Chambers 5 (0.01%)

Electorate: 58,471; votes cast: 36,893 (63.1%); spoilt votes: 99 (0.2%); valid votes: 36,794

See also: Full 2003 results from East Londonderry | Full 1998 results from East Londonderry | The Boundary Commission's Provisional Recommendations | Boundary Commission 2003 | Jim Riley's analysis of votes and seats in the 1998 Assembly election | The constituencies

Other sites based at ARK: ORB (Online Research Bank) | CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) | Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey

Your comments, please! Send an email to me at nicholas.whyte@gmail.com.
 

This page has been developed with the support of a project grant from the New Initiatives Fund of the Electoral Commission. However, any views expressed on this page or, in particular, other pages of this website are those of the author and not necessarily shared by The Electoral Commission.

Nicholas Whyte, 3 June 1998; last updated 21 July 2010.