1997 Craigavon Borough Council election

Main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1997

1997 Craigavon Borough Council election

21 May 1997 (1997-05-21)
All 26 seats to Craigavon Borough Council 14 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party UUP SDLP DUP Seats won 11 7 3 Seat change 0 1 1   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Sinn Féin Ind. Nationalist Alliance Seats won 2 2 1 Seat change 0 2 1   Seventh party   Party Workers' Party Seats won 0 Seat change 1

Elections to Craigavon Borough Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 26 councillors.

Election results

Craigavon Borough Council Election Result 1997

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	UUP	11	0	0	0	42.3	39.7	12,107	1.4
	SDLP	7	1	0	1	26.9	19.0	5,787	5.9
	DUP	3	0	1	1	11.5	14.6	4,439	1.5
	Sinn Féin	2	0	0	0	7.7	12.2	3,717	3.0
	Ind. Nationalist	2	2	0	2	7.7	6.2	1,905	6.2
	Alliance	1	0	1	1	3.8	4.5	1,366	1.7
	Labour Coalition	0	0	0	0	0.0	2.7	817	New
	Workers' Party	0	0	1	1	0.0	0.9	281	0.9
	NI Women's Coalition	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.3	84	New

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

Results of the Craigavon Borough Council election, 1997
by district

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	UUP		SDLP		DUP		Sinn Féin		Alliance		Others
Craigavon Central	43.6	3	15.2	1	13.8	1	13.4	1	6.9	1	7.1	0	7
Loughside	7.2	0	47.0	4	1.3	0	35.3	1	0.9	0	8.3	0	5
Lurgan	64.6	5	7.6	1	17.8	1	4.3	0	4.9	0	0.8	0	7
Portadown	37.7	3	11.0	1	22.9	1	0.0	0	4.6	0	23.8	2	7
Total	39.7	11	19.0	7	14.6	3	12.2	2	4.5	1	10.0	2	26

District results

Craigavon Central

1993: 3 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Alliance
1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Alliance
1993-1997 Change: No change

Craigavon Central - 7 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	UUP	Kenneth Twyble*	20.15%	1,576
	DUP	William Allen*	13.79%	1,079
	Sinn Féin	Francis Murray	13.40%	1,048
	SDLP	Patricia Mallon*	12.89%	1,008
	UUP	Samuel McCammick*	9.42%	737	965	991
	Alliance	Sean Hagan*	6.92%	541	563.42	564.52	565.87	566.96	568.19	708.84	914.04
	UUP	Frederick Crowe*	9.23%	722	831.82	883.32	883.32	883.32	883.32	890.24	910.03
	UUP	Cyril McLoughlin	4.82%	377	591.7	610.8	610.8	614.8	614.89	625.49	636.44
	Labour Coalition	Alan Evans	4.97%	389	395.08	395.68	417.82	425.73	426.63	541.63
	SDLP	Philip Mallon	2.33%	182	182	182	217.01	224.37	250.86
	NI Women's Coalition	Chris Moffat	1.07%	84	88.56	88.76	89.93	90.93	91.17
	Workers' Party	Peter Smyth*	0.70%	55	56.14	56.44	60.04	61.67	62.27
	Labour Coalition	William McAvoy	0.32%	25	25	25.1	28.07
Electorate: 15,325   Valid: 7,823 (51.05%)   Spoilt: 159   Quota: 978   Turnout: 7,982 (52.08%)

Loughside

1993: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Workers' Party
1997: 4 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin
1993-1997 Change: SDLP gain from Workers' Party

Loughside - 5 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Sinn Féin	John O'Dowd*	35.26%	2,320
	SDLP	Sean McCavanagh*	22.80%	1,500
	SDLP	Dolores Kelly*	10.52%	692	926.96	1,019.03	1,021.79	1,030.94	1,077.05	1,134.05
	SDLP	Mary McAlinden	8.54%	562	830.4	922.2	929.14	942.59	979.61	1,022.58	1,125.58
	SDLP	Kieran McGeown	5.15%	339	755.24	923.18	931	938.03	974.87	1,015.23	1,065.23
	UUP	Thomas Crozier	7.16%	471	471	471.54	471.54	487.54	566.54	572.54	575.54
	Workers' Party	Tom French	3.44%	226	358.88	371.3	378.97	391.15	406.95	491.98
	Labour Coalition	Hugh Casey*	3.09%	203	258.44	270.86	274.04	279.04	294.83
	Labour Coalition	Mark McKavanagh	1.54%	101	161.72	173.33	179.12	186
	DUP	Anne Hanlon	1.35%	89	90.76	90.76	90.76	90.76
	Alliance	Adrian McKinney	0.94%	62	77.84	80.27	84.15
	Labour Coalition	Mary Sheen	0.21%	14	47.44	50.14
Electorate: 11,783   Valid: 6,579 (55.83%)   Spoilt: 109   Quota: 1,097   Turnout: 6,688 (56.76%)

Lurgan

1993: 5 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1997: 5 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1993-1997 Change: No change

Lurgan - 7 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	UUP	Samuel Gardiner	22.45%	1,802
	UUP	George Savage	17.08%	1,371
	UUP	Meta Crozier*	8.61%	691	1,034.2
	UUP	Jonathan Bell	8.16%	655	778.64	873.68	877.56	878.56	887.62	980.98	1,069.98
	UUP	Sydney Cairns*	5.41%	434	526.84	619.72	623.97	623.97	630.51	742.26	961.02
	SDLP	Mary McNally*	7.65%	614	615.76	616.3	634.3	877.3	877.33	953.87	959.29
	DUP	Ruth Allen*	10.00%	803	840.4	866.59	868.86	868.86	870.09	889.36	922.32
	DUP	Frederick Baird	7.76%	623	689.88	719.85	721.56	721.56	722.91	740.31	775.19
	UUP	William McCullough	2.86%	230	335.6	438.74	442.55	444.99	449.46	485.06
	Alliance	Wilson Freeburn	4.86%	390	399.68	405.62	435.04	442.04	442.13
	Sinn Féin	Bernadette O'Hagan	4.35%	349	349.44	349.44	350.44
	Labour Coalition	Gillian Kirk	0.61%	49	51.2	53.9
	Labour Coalition	James Devlin	0.21%	17	18.32	18.59
Electorate: 14,526   Valid: 8,028 (55.27%)   Spoilt: 136   Quota: 1,004   Turnout: 8,164 (56.20%)

Portadown

1993: 3 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance
1997: 3 x UUP, 2 x Independent Nationalist, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1993-1997 Change: Independent Nationalist (two seats) gain from DUP and Alliance

Portadown - 7 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	DUP	Mervyn Carrick*	21.22%	1,713
	Ind. Nationalist	Breandán Mac Cionnaith	18.49%	1,493
	UUP	James Gillespie*	14.90%	1,203
	UUP	Joseph Trueman*	11.38%	919	994.85	994.85	996.26	1,053.54
	SDLP	Ignatius Fox*	11.02%	890	891.64	928.76	934.17	934.65	1,025.65
	UUP	Mark Neale	6.38%	515	636.77	636.77	637.18	747.58	830.97	845.61	849.32	1,049.84
	Ind. Nationalist	Joe Duffy	5.10%	412	413.23	840.43	840.43	840.43	861.27	861.27	870.28	870.28
	UUP	David Thompson	5.00%	404	447.46	447.46	448.46	465.42	566.36	591.68	593.8	820.12
	DUP	John Tate*	1.64%	132	564.96	564.96	566.37	570.05	584.42	586.22	586.75
	Alliance	William Ramsay*	4.62%	373	382.43	387.87	395.19	397.11
	Labour Coalition	Carol Lindsay	0.24%	19	20.64	20.96
Electorate: 13,916   Valid: 8,073 (58.01%)   Spoilt: 169   Quota: 1,010   Turnout: 8,242 (59.23%)