2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election

The 2003 election to the Northern Ireland Assembly was held on Wednesday, 26 November 2003, after being suspended for just over a year. It was the second election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. Six members from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies were elected by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and a number of independent candidates.

2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election

26 November 2003
All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly 55 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	63.0% 6.8%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ian Paisley David Trimble Gerry Adams Party DUP UUP Sinn Féin Leader since 30 September 1971 8 September 1995 13 November 1983 Leader's seat North Antrim Upper Bann Belfast West Last election 20 seats, 18.5% 28 seats, 21.3% 18 seats, 16.7% Seats won 30 27 24 Seat change 10 1 6 Popular vote 177,944 156,931 162,758 Percentage 25.7% 22.7% 23.5% Swing 7.2% 1.4% 6.8%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Mark Durkan David Ford David Ervine Party SDLP Alliance PUP Leader since 10 November 2001 6 October 2001 2002 Leader's seat Foyle South Antrim Belfast East Last election 24 seats, 22.0% 6 seats, 5.6% 2 seats, 2.6% Seats won 18 6 1 Seat change 6 1 Popular vote 117,547 25,372 8,032 Percentage 17.0% 3.7% 1.2% Swing 5.0% 1.9% 1.4%   Seventh party   Party UK Unionist Last election 5 seats, 4.5% Seats won 1 Seat change 4 Popular vote 5,700 Percentage 0.8% Swing 3.7%
Seats won by each party per constituency. Voters elect 6 assembly members from the 18 constituencies.
First Minister before election Suspended Elected First Minister Suspended

The election was originally planned for May 2003,[1] but was delayed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.[1]

Political parties

On the unionist side, the Democratic Unionist Party gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller unionist parties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes, with thirty seats. The Ulster Unionist Party increased their vote slightly, despite slipping to third place in first preference votes, and won 27 seats, a net loss of one. Shortly after the election three Ulster Unionist MLAs, Jeffrey Donaldson, Norah Beare and Arlene Foster, defected to the Democratic Unionists.

On the nationalist side, Sinn Féin saw a big increase in their vote, gaining six seats at the net expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, for a total of 24 seats.

The minor parties all saw a significant fall in their support. The Alliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote almost halving, the Women's Coalition, United Unionist Coalition and Northern Ireland Unionist Party were all wiped out, and the Progressive Unionist Party and UK Unionist Party won just one seat each.

The biggest surprise of the election came in West Tyrone with the election of the independent Kieran Deeny, a doctor campaigning on the single issue of hospital provision in Omagh.

Several sitting MLAs stood under a different label to the one they had used in the 1998 election. Some had failed to be selected by their parties to stand and so stood as independents, whilst others had changed parties during the course of the assembly. Most of these realignments occurred within the unionist parties, with several defections between existing parties, and two new parties being formed – the United Unionist Coalition (formed by the three MLAs elected as independent unionists, though one later joined the Democratic Unionist Party) and the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (formed by four of the five MLAs elected as the UK Unionist Party, though one later left them, joined the Democratic Unionists for a period, then contested the election as an independent unionist). Neither the United Unionist Assembly Party nor the Northern Ireland Unionists won any seats in 2003.

Results

Party		Leader	Seats	+/-	% of seats	Number	% of vote
	DUP	Ian Paisley	30	+10	27.8	177,944	25.7
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	24	+6	22.2	162,758	23.5
	UUP	David Trimble	27	-1	25	156,931	22.7
	SDLP	Mark Durkan	18	-6	16.7	117,547	17.0
	Alliance	David Ford	6	0	5.6	25,372	3.7
	Independent	N/A	1	+1	0.9	20,234	2.9
	PUP	David Ervine	1	-1	0.9	8,032	1.2
	NI Women's Coalition	Monica McWilliams	0	-2		5,785	0.8
	UK Unionist	Robert McCartney	1	-4	0.9	5,700	0.8
	United Unionist Council	Denis Watson	0	N/A		2,705	0.4
	Green (NI)	John Barry	0	0		2,688	0.4
	Socialist Environmental	Goretti Horgan	0	N/A		2,394	0.4
	Workers' Party	Seán Garland	0	0		1,881	0.3
	NI Conservatives	Michael Howard	0	0		1,604	0.2
	NI Unionist	Cedric Wilson	0	N/A		1,350	0.2
	Socialist Party	Peter Hadden	0	N/A		343	0.0
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Rainbow George	0	N/A		124	0.0
	Ulster Third Way	David Kerr	0	N/A		16	0.0
Total			108	0	100.0	692,028	100.0

All parties with over 1,000 votes shown.

Electorate: 1,097,526; Valid votes: 692,028; Turnout: 63.05%.

SOURCE: ARK website

Votes summary

Popular vote DUP   25.6% Sinn Féin   23.52% Ulster Unionist   22.68% SDLP   16.99% Alliance   3.67% Progressive Unionist   1.16% United Kingdom Unionist   0.69% Independent   3.75% Other   1.94%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats DUP   27.78% Sinn Féin   22.22% Ulster Unionist   25% SDLP   16.67% Alliance   5.56% Progressive Unionist   0.93% United Kingdom Unionist   0.93% Independent   0.93%

References

1. The Northern Ireland (Date of Next Assembly Poll) Order 2003