1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election
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All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The first elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on June 25, 1998. Six members were elected by Single Transferable Vote from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, giving a total of 108 MLAs, or Members of the Legislative Assembly.
This article is part of a series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the |
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Results
The result was (first preference votes only):
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #2AA82C;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #F6CB2F;" data-sort-value="Alliance Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #660066;" data-sort-value="UK Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #aadfff;" data-sort-value="Independent Unionist" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #2B45A2;" data-sort-value="Progressive Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: aqua;" data-sort-value="Northern Ireland Women's Coalition" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: black;" data-sort-value="Ulster Democratic Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #DC241f;" data-sort-value="Labour Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #F8F9FA;" data-sort-value="Workers' Party of Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservatives in Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: darkgray;" data-sort-value="Ulster Independence Movement" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #ffe4e1;" data-sort-value="Natural Law Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF3300;" data-sort-value="Socialist Party (Ireland)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #8dc63f;" data-sort-value="Green Party of Northern Ireland" |Party |
Leader |
Seats |
% of seats |
Votes |
% of vote |
Rank | |
UUP | David Trimble | 28 | 25.9% | 172,225 | 21.28% | 2 | |
SDLP | John Hume | 24 | 22.2% | 177,963 | 21.99% | 1 | |
DUP | Ian Paisley | 20 | 18.5% | 145,917 | 18.03% | 3 | |
Sinn Féin | Gerry Adams | 18 | 16.7% | 142,858 | 17.65% | 4 | |
Alliance | John Alderdice | 6 | 5.6% | 52,636 | 6.50% | 5 | |
UK Unionist | Robert McCartney | 5 | 4.6% | 36,541 | 4.52% | 6 | |
Ind. Unionist | 3 | 2.8% | 24,339 | 3.00% | 7 | ||
PUP | Hugh Smyth | 2 | 1.9% | 20,634 | 2.55% | 8 | |
NI Women's Coalition | Monica McWilliams | 2 | 1.9% | 13,019 | 1.61% | 9 | |
Ulster Democratic | Gary McMichael | 0 | 8,651 | 1.07% | 10 | ||
Independent | 0 | 5,392 | 0.69% | * | |||
Labour Party NI | Malachi Curran | 0 | 2,729 | 0.34% | 11 | ||
Workers' Party of Ireland | Tom French | 0 | 1,989 | 0.25% | 12 | ||
NI Conservatives | William Hague | 0 | 1,835 | 0.23% | 13 | ||
Ulster Independence | Hugh Ross | 0 | 1,227 | 0.15% | 17 | ||
Natural Law | James Anderson | 0 | 832 | 0.10% | 18 | ||
Socialist Party | Joe Higgins | 0 | 789 | 0.10% | 19 | ||
Green (NI) | 0 | 710 | 0.09% | 20 | |||
Total | 108 | 100.0% | 786,132 | 100.0% |
All parties with over 500 votes listed. Electorate: 1,178,556; Turnout: 823,565 (69.88%); Spoiled votes: 13,248; Valid: 810,317.
- ¹ Independent candidates were ranked 14, 15 and 16; other independents won fewer than 500 votes.
Votes summary
Seats summary
Details
Although the SDLP won the most first preference votes, the Ulster Unionists won the most seats in the Assembly. This has been attributed to several reasons, including:
- Slightly differential turnouts across the province, with the result that in the more staunchly unionist east fewer votes were required to elect an MLA than in the SDLP's heartlands in the west.
- The Ulster Unionists proved better at "vote balancing" whereby in the rounds of transfers their candidates were less likely to be eliminated earlier on.
- The Ulster Unionists proved better at attracting transfers from other parties (and due to the vote balancing mentioned above, were more likely to be in a position to benefit from this)