South Antrim 1973-1982


DUP V/UUUP UUP U(P)/UPNI Oth U Alliance Lab Comm WP/RC SDLP
82a 28.2%*** 0.5% 41.1%****
2.7% 11.6%** 0.8%
2.5% 12.3%*
79w

69.0%

16.2% 2.6%
2.2% 10.1%
75cc 25.1%** 10.9%** 23.7%* 14.0%*
12.4%*
0.4% 1.0% 12.6%*
74wo

71.5%

15.3%


13.2%
74wf

67.6%

17.6% 2.5%

12.3%
73a 19.1%* 11.1%* 14.2%* 17.4%** 12.0%* 12.3%* 3.3%

10.5%*

See spreadsheets for 1973 Assembly, February 1974 Westminster, October 1974 Westminster, 1975 Convention, 1979 Westminster and 1982 Assembly.

Assembly election, 20 October 1982 (ten seats)

James Molyneaux MP (UUP) 19,978
*William Beattie (DUP) 7,489
Ivan Davis (DUP) 5,394
Fraser Agnew (UUP) 3,302
Seamus Close (Alliance) 2,916

John Clenaghan (SDLP) 2,802
Gordon Mawhinney (Alliance) 2,660
Roy Thompson (DUP) 2,646

Joan Tomlin (Alliance) 2,107
Patrick Ritchie (SDLP) 2,081
James McDonald (SDLP) 2,071
George Herron (Ind U) 1,797
Clifford Forsythe (UUP) 1,612
Trevor Kirkland (DUP) 1,265
Samuel Neill (DUP) 1,250
Billy McDonnell (Ind SDLP) 1,180
William Bell (UUP) 979
Ivan Hunter (UUP) 930
Kevin Smyth (WP) 891
Austin Kelly (WP) 775
James Smith (Ind DUP) 686
Bob Kidd (Lab) 560
Frank Millar jr (UUP) 526
Andrew Gibb (Communist) 247
*Kennedy Lindsay (UUUP) 160
Samuel Larmour (UUUP) 139
Votes by party:
UUP 27,327 (41.1%) 4 seats (4.5 quotas)
DUP 18,044 (27.2%) 3 seats (3.0 quotas)
Alliance 7,683 (11.6%) 2 seats (1.3 quotas)
SDLP 6,954 (10.5%) 1 seat (1.2 quotas)
Ind U 1,797 (2.7%, 0.3 quotas)
WP 1,666 (2.5%, 0.3 quotas)
Ind SDLP 1,180 (1.8%, 0.2 quotas)
Ind DUP 686 (1,0%, 0.1 quotas)
Lab 560 (0.8%, 0.1 quotas)
UUUP 299 (0.5%, 0.05 quotas)
Communist 247 (0.4%, 0.04 quotas)

Electorate: 131,734
Votes cast: 68,519 (52.0%); spoilt votes 2,076 (3.0%)
Valid votes: 66,443; quota: 6,041

* Elected to the 1975 Constitutional Convention

Gibb ran as the candidate of the Communist Party of Ireland, and Kidd as "Newtownabbey Labour"; I have abbreviated these in the table above.

James Knight described this election as "near, if not above, the upper limit of practicality for a public single transferable vote election", with 26 candidates chasing ten places. The entire count took about 42 hours, and the only STV election I know of which was of greater complexity was the Irish Free State's Senate election of 1925.

Only two of those elected to the Convention in 1975 stood and only one of them was elected, the other finishing second last (though he was eliminated third as he overtook the Communist candidate on transfers). With two extra seats allocated to the constituency, and the disappearance of two parties which had won three seats in 1975, comparisons are difficult, but it could be broadly said that the DUP picked up one of the Vanguard seats, the UUP got the other Vanguard seat as well as the UPNI seat and one of the new seats, and Alliance got the other new seat.

The results followed the first preferences, with Alliance's Gordon Mawhinney finishing on 5100 votes to 4651 for Frank Millar jr of the UUP. (Millar was subsequently elected to the Assembly in a by-election for South Belfast. His father was also elected from North Belfast. ) The 449 votes between Mawhinney and Millar were however not in fact the decisive margin. That had come a couple of counts earlier, when only 98 votes separated the SDLP's Clenaghan and Alliance's Close at the bottom of the pile. If the positions had been reversed, and Close been eliminated at that point, his votes would certainly have split more evenly than Clenaghan's votes, quite possibly enough to elect Millar of the UUP rather than the second SDLP candidate.

Westminster Election, 3 May 1979 (one seat)

*James Molyneaux (UUP) 50,782 (69.0%) best result for UUP in Northern Ireland
Charles Kinahan (Alliance) 11,914 (16.2%)
Patrick Rowan (SDLP) 7,432 (10.1%)
Bob Kidd (United Labour Party) 1,895 (2.6%)
Kevin Smyth (Republican Clubs) 1,615 (2.2%)

UUP majority: 38,868; Electorate: 126,493; Turnout 58.8%

A good result for Molyneaux which gave him the highest majority of any MP in the UK. Kidd's United Labour Party had been founded by Paddy Devlin in 1978.

Constitutional Convention election, 1 May 1975 (eight seats)

*William Beattie (DUP-UUUC) 11,834
*Austin Ardill (UUP-UUUC) 10,895
*Vincent McCloskey (SDLP) 6,756
*Anne Dickson (UPNI) 5,723
Charles Kinahan (Alliance) 5,294
*Kennedy Lindsay (VUP-UUUC) 4,529

*Peter McLachlan (UPNI) 3,919
John Cousins (Alliance) 3,228
George Morrison (VUP-UUUC) 2,943
James Smith (DUP-UUUC) 2,970
Samuel Semple (UUP-UUUC) 2,813
John Logan (UUP-UUUC) 2,595
Stewart Dunlop (DUP-UUUC) 2,461
James McDonald (SDLP) 1,888
Kevin Smith (Rep Clubs) 710
William Somerset (Communist) 248
Vote by party:
[UUUC got 41,040 votes (59.6%) and won 5 seats (5.4 quotas)]
DUP 17265 (25.1%) 2 seats (2.3 quotas)
UUP 16303 (23.7%) 1 seat (2.1 quotas)
UPNI 9642 (14.0%) 1 seat (1.3 quotas)
SDLP 8644 (12.6%) 1 seat (1.1 quotas)
Alliance 8522 (12.4%) 1 seat (1.1 quotas)
Vanguard 7472 (10.9%) 2 seats (1.0 quotas)
Rep Clubs 710 (1.0%, 0.1 quotas)
Communist 248 (0.4%, 0.03 quotas)

Electorate: 119,723
Votes cast: 70,129 (58.6%); spoilt votes 1,323 (1.9%)
Valid votes: 68,806; quota 7,646

* member of the 1973 Assembly

Compared with 1973, Vanguard and the DUP gained both the two pro-White Paper UUP seats, and Anne Dickson kept her seat under a different party label. While both Ardill and Beattie did very well on the first count, both found their transfers leaking to their coalition partners rather than their running mates; to such an extent that Vanguard got two seats on less than one quota of first preferences. The two Vanguard candidates were the last two elected, both over the 7646 quota, with Lindsay finishing on 7967 and Morrison on 7724 to Peter MacLachlan's 5905 for the UPNI. Lindsay's undistributed surplus would have slightly increased Morrison's already substantial winning margin.

Westminster election, 10 October 1974 (one seat)

*James Molyneaux (UUP - UUUC) 48,892 (71.5%)
Charles Kinahan (Alliance) 10,462 (15.3%)
Patrick Rowan (SDLP) 9,061 (13.2%)

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP - UUUC) majority: 38,432; Electorate: 118,483; Turnout 58.0%

* sitting MP

Molyneaux consolidated his already strong position.

Westminster Election, 28 February 1974 (one seat)

*James Molyneaux (UUP - UUUC) 48,203 (67.6%)
Charles Kinahan (Alliance) 12,559 (17.6%)
Patrick Rowan (SDLP) 8,769 (12.3%)
Bob Kidd (Independent) 1,801 (2.5%)

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP - UUUC) majority: 35,644; Electorate: 116,710; Turnout 61.5%

* sitting MP

A strong performance by Molyneaux.

Assembly election, 28 June 1973 (eight seats)

*William Beattie (DUP) 10,126
*Anne Dickson (Ind U) 9,033
Edward McCloskey (SDLP) 7,899
Derrick Crothers (Alliance) 5,975
*Nat Minford (UUP, pro-White Paper) 5,289
Austin Ardill (UUP, anti-White Paper) 5,234

Allen Annesley (DUP) 4,232
Peter McLachlan (UUP, pro-White Paper) 3,983
George Swann (UUP, pro-White Paper) 3,742
Kennedy Lindsay (Vanguard) 3,005
William Snoddy (Vanguard) 2,706
Robert Bradford (Vanguard) 2,587
John Blakeley (UUP, anti-White Paper) 2,375
Alexander McGowan (UUP, anti-White Paper) 2,327
William Gawn (Alliance) 1,709
Joan Tomlin (Alliance) 1,572
Sandy Scott (NILP) 854
Bob Kidd (NILP) 740
William King (UUP, anti-White Paper) 694
Deirdre Byrne (NILP) 559
Robert Johnston (NILP) 342
Votes by party:
[UUP got 23,644 votes (31.5%) and won 3 seats (2.8 quotas)]
DUP 14,358 (19.1%) 1 seat (1.7 quotas)
UUP (pro) 13,014 (17.4%) 2 seats (1.6 quotas)
UUP (anti) 10,630 (14.2%) 1 seat (1.3 quotas)
Alliance 9,256 (12.3%) 1 seat (1.1 quotas)
Ind U 9,033 (12.0%) 1 seat (1.1 quotas)
Vanguard 8,298 (11.1%) 1 seat (1.0 quotas)
SDLP 7,899 (10.5%) 1 seat (0.9 quotas)
NILP 2,495 (3.3%, 0.3 quotas)

Electorate: 114,240
Votes cast: 76,519 (67.0%); spoilt votes 1,486 (1.9%)
Valid votes: 75,033; quota 8,338

* Member of the Northern Ireland House of Commons when it was dissolved.

In addition to the three candidates who had been been Stormont MPs in 1972, Austin Ardill had represented the Carrick seat until the 1969 election, when he lost the Unionist nomination to Anne Dickson.

Beattie's surplus largely went to his DUP colleague Annesley, but it was not enough; the pro-White Paper UUP McLachlan proved to be able to pull transfers in from other parties, and finished on 7997 votes to Annesley's 6663.

Austin Ardill is listed by both Walker and Knight as anti-White Paper; he had however signed Faulkner's pledge and so is listed by Flackes and Elliott as pro, with a mention by Bew and Gillespie that he changed sides after the election from pro to anti. I have tallied him as anti.

Minford was elected Speaker of the Assembly.


See also:

Results from 1973 to 1982 for each seat: East Belfast | North Belfast | South Belfast | West Belfast | North Antrim | South Antrim | Armagh | North Down | South Down | Fermanagh and South Tyrone | Londonderry | Mid Ulster

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.

Nicholas Whyte, 25 March 2003.



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