1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election

The 1973 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly took place following the publication of the British government's white paper Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals which proposed a 78-member Northern Ireland Assembly, elected by proportional representation.

1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election
28 June 1973
All 78 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
40 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Brian Faulkner Gerry Fitt Ian Paisley
Party UUP SDLP DUP
Leader since 23 March 1971 21 August 1970 30 September 1971
Leader's seat South Down Belfast North North Antrim
Seats won 31[nb 1] 19 8
Seat change 5 new 8
Popular vote 258,790 159,773 78,228
Percentage 35.8% 22.1% 10.8%
Swing 12.4% new 7.0%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Oliver Napier William Craig None
Party Alliance Vanguard West Belfast
Loyalist Coalition
Leader since 1972 9 February 1972 n/a
Leader's seat Belfast East North Antrim None
Seats won 8 7 3
Seat change new new new
Popular vote 66,541 75,709 16,869
Percentage 9.2% 11.5% 2.3%
Swing new new new
  Seventh party
 
Leader Vivian Simpson
Party NI Labour
Leader since 1969
Leader's seat Belfast North
Seats won 1
Seat change 1
Popular vote 18,675
Percentage 2.6%
Swing 5.5%
Percentage of seats gained by each of the party
Chief Executive before election

Brian Faulkner as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland

 Elected Chief Executive

Brian Faulkner

Northern Ireland 1973–98
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Northern Ireland
Interim bodies
Elections
Members
See also

A cross-community coalition of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) under Brian Faulkner, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland was agreed in November, and following the Sunningdale Agreement, a Power Sharing Executive was established from 1 January 1974. After opposition from within the UUP and the Ulster Workers Council Strike, the executive and assembly collapsed in May 1974.

Result
↓
24 19 8 8 7 7 3 1 1
UUP (Pro) SDLP DUP APNI UUP (Anti) Vanguard

The election results were:

Party Votes Vote % Seats Seats %
UUP (Pro-White Paper) 182,696 25.3 24 30.8
SDLP 159,773 22.1 19 24.4
DUP 78,228 10.8 8 10.3
UUP (Anti-White Paper) 76,094 10.5 7 9.0
Vanguard 75,709 10.5 7 9.0
Alliance 66,541 9.2 8 10.3
NI Labour 18,675 2.6 1 1.3
West Belfast Loyalist Coalition 16,869 2.3 3 3.8
Independent Unionist 13,755 1.9 1 1.3
Republican Clubs 13,064 1.8 0 —
Nationalist 6,270 0.9 0 —
Independent 4,091 0.6 0 —
Loyalist 2,752 0.4 0 —
Independent pro-White Paper 2,008 0.3 0 —
Independent Nationalist 2,000 0.3 0 —
Republican Labour 1,750 0.2 0 —
Ulster Liberal 811 0.1 0 —
National Front 591 0.1 0 —
Ulster Constitution 202 0.0 0 —
Independent Loyalist 189 0.0 0 —
Communist Party 123 0.0 0 —
Total 722,151 100 78 100
All parties listed.

Votes summary
Popular vote
UUP (Pro-White Paper)
 
 25.3%
SDLP
 
 22.1%
Democratic Unionist
 
 10.8%
UUP (Anti-White Paper)
 
 10.5%
Vanguard
 
 10.5%
Alliance
 
 9.2%
NI Labour
 
 2.6%
West Belfast Loyalist
 
 2.3%
Independent Unionist
 
 1.9%
Republican Clubs
 
 1.8%
Nationalist
 
 0.9%
Independent
 
 0.6%
Other
 
 1.5%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
UUP pro-white paper
 
 30.8%
SDLP
 
 24.4%
Democratic Unionist
 
 10.3%
Alliance
 
 10.3%
UUP anti-white paper
 
 9.0%
Vanguard
 
 9.0%
West Belfast Loyalist
 
 3.8%
NI Labour
 
 1.3%
Independent Unionist
 
 1.3%
gollark: I mean, alternatively, it's the art of paying people to agree with things somewhat more.
gollark: Lobbying somewhat problematic but probably unavoidable and I think you could help a bit by reducing government powers.
gollark: > As opposite extreme you could have a country with a super strict and specific constitution that is too holy for any politician to change (maybe a theocracy) but the gov controls most of the industryThe *government* still has a lot of political power inasmuch as it controls lots of things.
gollark: No planet, so... ageoism?
gollark: Conversely, if you control a lot of what people do you control a lot of the flow of money.

See also
  • Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected in 1973

References

    Footnotes
    1. 24 Ulster Unionist AMs were supportive of the White Paper, while 7 UUP AMs were against it.

    Sources
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