The 1997 Local Government Elections in Northern Ireland

Map by Conal Kelly

The Elections

The elections for Northern Ireland's 26 local councils took place on May 21, 1997, less than three weeks after the Westminster election which had brought the Labour government to power. This was the seventh set of elections since the local councils were reorganised in 1973. Councillors are elected for a four-year term by Single Transferable Vote from local electoral areas returning five, six or seven councillors. You can look at all the local election results since 1973 here, and compare specifically with the 1993 and 2001 elections elsewhere.

The Results

I have taken my figures from the Irish News archive which may explain why I have some differences with the figures in CAIN. Also it can be difficult to interpret exactly which Independent councillors are Independent Unionists. (See also spreadsheet archive.)

These elections saw a marked advance for Sinn Féin at the expense of the other main parties.

UUP 175,036 28% 185 cllrs
SDLP 130,387 21% 120 cllrs
SF 106,934 17% 74 cllrs
DUP 99,651 16% 91 cllrs
Alliance 41,952 7% 41 cllrs
PUP 12,051 2% 7 cllrs
UDP 6,244 1% 4 cllrs
Women's Coalition 3,380 1% 1 cllr
UKUP 2,945 0.47% 4 cllrs
Labour 2,774 0.44% 3 cllrs
Conservatives 2,634 0.42% 3 cllrs
Ind Nationalists 2,450 0.39% 3 cllrs
Workers Party 2,348 0.37%
Ind Nationalist Community Candidates 1,905 0.30% 2 cllrs
Newtownabbey Ratepayers Association 1,424 0.23% 2 cllrs
Greens 706 0.11%
Dem Left 560 0.09% 1 cllr
Community Labour 464 0.07%
Upper Bann Labour 353 0.06%
Ulster Independence 71 0.01%
Natural Law Party 67 0.01%
Other Unionists 10,376 2% 15 cllrs
Independents 23,695 4% 26 cllrs

Total valid vote: 632,197; Spoiled votes: 12,580; Percentage turnout: 54.7%


This graph contrasts the 1997 first preference votes across the whole of Northern Ireland with those cast in the local government elections of 2001, 1993, 1989, 1985, 1981, 1977 and 1973.

This table has been corrected from the one compiled by CAIN. Changes for the main parties since 1993 are indicated by + or - signs, so for instance 9+ in the box for the UUP on Antrim council indicates that this was an increase from 8 councillors at the 1993 elections. I have not done this in the 'Others' column. Also I have not allowed for by-elections or changes of allegiance. (NB there was no change in party strengths in Dungannon or Limavady.)

Council UUP DUP SDLP SF APNI PUP UDP Others Total Seats
Antrim 9+ 3 4 1 2 0 0 0 19
Ards 10+ 5- 1+ 0 5- 0 0 2 Ind U 23
Armagh 10 2 7-- 3++ 0 0 0 0 22
Ballymena 11+ 8- 3+ 0 1 0 0 1 Ind U 24
Ballymoney 4-- 6 3 1+ 0 0 0 2 Inds 16
Banbridge 9- 3+ 3 0 0- 0 0 2 Inds 17
Belfast 13-- 7-- 7-- 13+++ 6+ 3++ 1+ 1 Ind U 51
Carrickfergus 4- 3+ 0 0 5- 0 0 3 Inds, 2 Ind U 17
Castlereagh 5- 10+ 2++ 0 4- 0 0 1 UKUP, 1 Ind U 23
Coleraine 10-- 5 3 0 3+ 0 0 1 Ind 22
Cookstown 4- 2- 4- 5+++ 0 0 0 1 Ind U 16
Craigavon 11+ 3- 7+ 2 1- 0 0 2 Ind Nat Comm'ty 26
Derry 3+ 4- 14--- 8+++ 0 0 0 1 Ind U 30
Down 6- 2- 12- 2++ 0 0 0 1 NIWC 23
Dungannon 8 3 4 5 0 0 0 1 Ind, 1 DL 22
Fermanagh 9- 2 4- 5++ 0 0 0 1 Ind Nat, 1 Prog Soc, 1 Ind 23
Larne 6- 3- 1+ 0 1- 0 0 4 Inds 15
Limavady 6 1 7 1 0 0 0 0 15
Lisburn 13--- 2- 2- 4+ 3+ 1+ 2+ 1 Ind U, 1 Prot U, 1 Cons 30
Magherafelt 3 3- 5 5+ 0 0 0 0 16
Moyle 3+ 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 Ind U, 2 Ind Nats, 2 Inds 15
Newry and Mourne 5- 1 12--- 8+++ 0 0 0 4 Inds 30
Newtownabbey 10 2--- 1 0 3- 1+ 1+ 2 Lab, 2 N'bey R'payers, 3 Ind Us 25
North Down 6 2- 0 0 6+ 2++ 0 3 UKUP, 3 Inds, 2 Cons, 1 Ind U 25
Omagh 4 3 6+ 6 1 0 0 1 Lab 21
Strabane 3- 3 5 4++ 0 0 0 1 Ind 16
Total 186 91 120 74 41 7 4 59 582

Difficulties with categorisation

In an under-reported election like this, it is not very surprising that sources differ from each other particularly about the smaller parties. My figures above differ from Flackes and Elliott (which was not the source used by CAIN) in a number of details. I stand by my own interpretation but in the interests of fairness record the differences below:

Parliamentary constituencies


See also:

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, 7 June 1998; modified 17 February 2001.



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