The 1973 Local Government Elections

Results by Party

See spreadsheet archive.
Party Votes Percentage Councillors
UUP 255187 17.0% 194
Alliance 94474 13.7% 63
SDLP 92600 13.4% 82
United Loy 28906 4.2% 20
DUP 28811 4.1% 21
Rep Clubs 20680 3.0% 8
NILP 17422 2.5% 4
Loy 14574 2.1% 15
Vanguard 13305 1.6% 10
Unity 10281 1.5% 6
Loy Coalition 7495 1.0% 3
Nationalist 3784 0.5% 4
Non Party Cmnty 3036 0.4% 3
Rep Lab 2594 0.4%
United Loy Coal 1819 0.3% 1
Off Rep 1196 0.1% 2
Ind Un Loy 967 0.1%
Republican 715 0.1% 1
Liberal 704 0.1%
Ind R'payer 610 0.1%
Non Party Ind Radical 533 0.1%
Un Coal 467 0.1%
Communist Party of Ireland 363 0.1%
Irish Labour Party 290 0.04%
Non Party Ratepayer 231 0.03%
Non Party - Tenants & Community Association 216 0.03%
Unoff Unionist 204 0.03%
Ind Nat 147 0.02%
Non Party - Abolish 11 Plus 143 0.02%
Non Party Sports & Development Council 97 0.01%
Ind Labour 91 0.01%
Unionist 23419 23.2% 22
Ind U 7776 1.1% 4
Non Party 19850 2.9% 23
Independent 28641 4.1% 29

This election is probably the most difficult to analyse of all elections covered on this site. As will be apparent from the list above, there is huge potential for confusion among the various candidate designations. In general I have followed the descriptions given in my main source, James Knight and Nicolas Baxter-Moore's Northern Ireland Local Government Elections, 1973. I have made one major systematic exception: in electoral areas where a candidate or candidates described as "Unionist" were not opposed by anyone calling themselves an "Official Unionist", I have added them to the UUP tally. This affects 74 elected councillors and and about 95,000 votes. I have noted where I did this on individual council pages below. I'm well aware that in some cases the "Unionist" may have had more support from local UUP members than the "Official Unionist" but this is the best I can do thirty years on. Individuals who think I have misdescribed them are very welcome to get in touch. Less controversially (I hope), I have merged the "Vanguard Loyalist" elected in Down with the other Vanguard candidates and the "Loyalist and Democratic Unionist" councillors in Lisburn, Newtownabbey and Ards with the DUP; and the Loyalist Unionist Coalition candidates of Craigavon have had their votes reallocated to their secondary affiliations. An additional irritation, not obvious below but clear from the 26 pages dealing with each council, is that Knight gave only the surnames of candidates (and the marital status of women!).

Results by Council

Council UUP DUP Vanguard Oth U/Loy Alliance SDLP Rep Clubs Oth Nat Others
Antrim 8 1 1 1 U 2


2 Ind
Ards 11

1 Loy Coal 2 1

1 Ind, 1 NILP
Armagh 10 2
1 U 1 4 1
1 Ind
Ballymena 9 5 1
1


2 Ind, 3 NP
Ballymoney 4 1
2 U 1 2

1 Ind, 5 NP
Banbridge 8

3 U
1

3 Ind
Belfast 25 2 1 2 Ind U, 2 Un Loy 8 7 2
2 NILP
Carrick 5

5 Un Loy, 1 Loy 3


1 NP
Castlereagh 8

2 U, 2 Un Loy, 1 Loy Coal 5


1 Ind
Coleraine 12

1 U, 1 Ind U 3 1

1 Ind, 1 NP
Cookstown 7

1 U, 1 Loy Coal
3 1
1 Ind, 1 NP
Craigavon 7 3 2 3 U, 3 Loy Un Coal 4 2

1 Ind
Down 8
1
2 8

1 Ind
Dungannon 11



5
2 Unity, 2 Republican
Fermanagh 5

3 U, 2 Unionist Unity
4
4 Unity 1 Ind, 1 NP
Larne 1

8 Loyalists 3


2 Ind, 1 NP
Limavady


8 United Unionists 2 4

1 Ind
Lisburn 14 4 1
3 1


Londonderry


9 United Loyalists 4 10 1 3 Nats
Magherafelt 4
1 1 Un Loy
6 1
1 Ind
Moyle 4

1 U
2

5 Ind, 4 NP
Newry and Mourne 3


4 13 2
2 Ind, 6 NP
Newtownabbey 9 3
3 U, 1 Un Loy, 1 Loy 3


1 NILP
North Down 9

3 Loy 7



Omagh 6

2 Unionist Unity 3 4
1 Nat, 1 Off Rep 3 NP cmnty
Strabane 6

1 Un Loy Coal 2 4

2 Ind
Totals 194 21 8 76 63 82 8 13 59

This is a particularly difficult election to analyse given the plethora of candidate descriptions, especially on the Unionist side. The list below details my numerous differences from the summary provided by Flackes and Elliott, also to be found on CAIN:


See also:

Local council election results from 1973 to 1983: Antrim | Ards | Armagh | Ballymena | Ballymoney | Banbridge | Belfast | Carrickfergus | Castlereagh | Coleraine | Cookstown | Craigavon | Derry | Down | Dungannon | Fermanagh | Larne | Limavady | Lisburn | Magherafelt | Moyle | Newry and Mourne | Newtownabbey | North Down | Omagh | Strabane

Local council election results from 1985 to 1989: Antrim | Ards | Armagh | Ballymena | Ballymoney | Banbridge | Belfast | Carrickfergus | Castlereagh | Coleraine | Cookstown | Craigavon | Derry | Down | Dungannon | Fermanagh | Larne | Limavady | Lisburn | Magherafelt | Moyle | Newry and Mourne | Newtownabbey | North Down | Omagh | Strabane

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.
Ivo Damkat, October 29, 2003; updated by Nicholas Whyte, 23 August 2004



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