Map and diagram by Conal Kelly

This constituency is the western shore of Lough Neagh. It takes in the whole of Magherafelt and Cookstown district councils, and the Coalisland part of Dungannon district council. The member of parliament has been Martin McGuinness (SF) since he defeated William McCrea (DUP) in 1997. Sinn Fein hold three out of six Assembly seats here, with the SDLP, UUP and DUP holding the other three (the result of all three Assembly elections since 1998). The 1995 boundary changes were so substantial that it was only 30% the same constituency that McCrea had won in 1983, incorporating also parts of the old Fermanagh and South Tyrone and East Londonderry constituencies (See the 1983-92 results from Mid Ulster, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and East Londonderry). The current boundary commission proposals leave the constituency unchanged.

See also the detailed guide by "Sammy Morse".

Billy Armstrong MLA has his own web-site.

Mid Ulster's population in the 2001 census was 86,496 (13th of the 18 constituencies).

• The average age was 33.75 (16th highest).
• 62.53% described themselves as Catholic (5th of 18 constituencies); 12.94% as Presbyterian (14th highest), 12.15% as Church of Ireland (13th highest), 0.74% as Methodist (2nd lowest) and 5.20% as members of other Christian denominations (11th highest). 6.34% were "no religion or religion not stated" (lowest in Northern Ireland).
• The translation into "Community background" was 65.26% Catholic (6th out of 18), 33.73% Protestants and other Christians (13th highest), 0.14% other religions and philosophies (equal lowest) and 0.88% none (15th).

2007 Assembly Election

2005 Westminster election (5 May, 1 seat)

*@Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein) 21,641 (47.6% -3.5%)
Ian McCrea (DUP) 10,665 (23.5% -7.6%)
@Patsy McGlone (SDLP) 7,922 (17.4% +0.6%)
@Billy Armstrong (UUP) 4,853 (10.7%)
Francis Donnelly (WP) 345 (0.8% -0.2%)

* outgoing MP.
@ Member of the Assembly

If cast in a six-seat STV election, these votes would give Sinn Fein three seats, the SDLP one, and the DUP one, with the last between the DUP and UUP.

2005 Local Government Election

Votes cast in Cookstown, Magherafelt and the Torrent DEA of Dungannon were as follows:

Sinn Fein 17,828 (46.1%)
DUP 7,495 (19.4%)
SDLP 6,581 (17.0%)
UUP 3,991 (10.3%)
Independents 2,599 (6.7%)
WP 102 (0.3%)
Socialist Party 84 (0.2%)

NB that there was no contest in the Ballinderry DEA of Cookstown, as only six candidates stood for six seats; if there had been, the overall vote share for SF would probably have been a little lower, and those of the UUP and SDLP a bit higher. If cast in a six-seat STV election, these votes would have given SF three seats and the DUP, SDLP and UUP one each.

2003 Assembly election (26 November; six seats)

Reaction: No change in party strengths, though Denis Haughey lost to running-mate Patsy McGlone by 634 votes.

2001 Westminster Election (7 June; 1 seat)

Electorate: 61,390; votes cast: 50,388 (82.0%); spoilt votes: 452 (0.9%)
Valid votes: 49,936; SF majority 9,953

* outgoing MP
@ member of the Assembly

Another good result for SF, increasing their vote in their second strongest constituency. A six-seat Assembly election on these figures would have given them three seats, the DUP two and SDLP one.

2001 Local Government Election (7 June)

SF 20800 (41%)
SDLP 10159 (20%)
DUP 8378 (17%)
UUP 7209 (15%)
WP 104 (0.2%)
Inds 2919 (6%)
Total valid votes 38,646 (75.74% of electorate)

If these votes had been cast in a six-seat STV election, Sinn Fein would have won three seats and the SDLP, DUP and UUP one each.

1998 Assembly Election (25 June; six seats)

* elected in 1996 Forum/talks election from Mid Ulster
# elected in 1996 Forum/talks election from Foyle

The third Sinn Féin seat took everyone by surprise, though it had been presaged in Martin McGuinness' victory in the 1997 Westminster election. Patsy McGlone of the SDLP began in sixth place, but there were not enough SDLP votes to elect him and he was overtaken by the UUP when their second candidate was eliminated. Had the two SDLP candidates balanced their votes slightly better, UUP transfers would have elected McGlone at the expense of Captain Kelly. As it was Kelly was ahead on the last count by 5,914 to 5,076, with an undistributed UUP surplus of 352 votes which might have narrowed the gap.

1997 Local Government Election

Sinn Féin 13,845 votes (36%)
Social Democratic and Labour Party 8,914 votes (23%)
Ulster Unionist Party 7,012 votes (18%)
Democratic Unionist Party 6,673 votes (17%)
Independent 1,183 votes (3%)
Independent Unionist 741 votes (2%)
Workers Party 140 votes (0.36%)
Labour 73 votes (0.19%)
Independent Nationalist 53 votes (0.14%)
Green Party 12 votes (0.03%)
Total valid votes 38,646 (75.74% of electorate)

1997 Westminster Election (one seat)

1996 Forum election (five seats)

Sinn Féin (SF) 13,001 (30%); Francie Molloy, Patrick Groogan elected
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 12,492 (28%); Patsy McGlone elected
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 7,935 (18%); John Junkin elected
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 7,243 (17%); Rev William McCrea elected
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) 549 (1%)
United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) 435 (1%)
Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) 380 (1%)
Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) 375 (1%)
Labour (Lab) 271 (1%)
Ulster Independence Movement (UIM) 263 (1%)
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) 259 (1%)
Workers Party (WP) 210 (0.48%)
Green Party 132 (0.30%)
Conservative Party (Con) 119 (0.27%)
Democratic Partnership 93 (0.21%)
Democratic Left (DL) 41 (0.09%)
Natural Law Party (NLP) 24 (0.05%)
Independent Chambers 20 (0.05%)

Electorate: 57,683; votes cast: 44,001 (76.2%); spoilt votes: 159 (0.3%); valid votes: 43,842

McCrea had been elected to the 1982 Assembly from Mid-Ulster.

See also: Full 2003 results from Mid Ulster | Full 1998 results from Mid Ulster | 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 7 October 2007.