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| Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998 All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly |
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| 25 June 1998 | ||||
| First Party | Second Party | Third Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Leader | John Hume | David Trimble | Ian Paisley | |
| Party | Social Democratic and Labour | Ulster Unionist | Democratic Unionist | |
| Leader since | 28 November 1979 | 8 September 1995 | 30 September 1971 | |
| Leader's seat | Foyle | Upper Bann | North Antrim | |
| Last election | 21 seats (21.4%) | 30 seats (24.2%) | 24 seats (18.8%) | |
| Seats won | 24 | 28 | 20 | |
| Seat change | +3 | -2 | -4 | |
| Popular vote | 177,963 | 172,225 | 145,917 | |
| Percentage | 22.0% | 21.3% | 18.5% | |
| Fourth Party | Fifth Party | |||
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| Leader | Gerry Adams | John Alderdice | ||
| Party | Sinn Féin | Alliance | ||
| Leader since | 13 November 1983 | 3 October 1987 | ||
| Leader's seat | Belfast West | Belfast East | ||
| Last election | 17 seats (15.5%) | 7 seats (6.5%) | ||
| Seats won | 18 | 6 | ||
| Seat change | +1 | -1 | ||
| Popular vote | 142,858 | 52,636 | ||
| Percentage | 16.7% | 5.6% | ||
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Incumbent First Minister
New position |
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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.
Contents |
Results
The result was (first preference votes only):
| Party | Leader | Seats | % of seats | Number | % of vote | Rank | |
| Ulster Unionist | David Trimble | 28 | 25.9 | 172,225 | 21.28 | 2 | |
| Social Democratic and Labour | John Hume | 24 | 22.2 | 177,963 | 21.99 | 1 | |
| Democratic Unionist | 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 | 6.5 | 5 | |
| UK Unionist | Robert McCartney | 5 | 4.6 | 36,541 | 4.52 | 6 | |
| Independent Unionist | 3 | 2.8 | 24,339 | 3.0 | 7 | ||
| Progressive Unionist | 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 | * | ||||
| Labour Party NI | Malachi Curran | 0 | 2,729 | 0.34 | 11 | ||
| Workers' Party | Tom French | 0 | 1,989 | 0.25 | 12 | ||
| Conservative | 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
| Popular vote | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDLP | 21.96% | |||
| Ulster Unionist | 21.25% | |||
| DUP | 18.14% | |||
| Sinn Féin | 17.63% | |||
| Alliance | 6.5% | |||
| United Kingdom Unionist | 4.51% | |||
| Progressive Unionist | 2.55% | |||
| Womens' Coalition | 1.61% | |||
| Ulster Democratic | 1.07% | |||
| Independent | 3.51% | |||
| Other | 1.27% | |||
Seats summary
| Parliamentary seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDLP | 22.22% | |||
| Ulster Unionist | 25.93% | |||
| DUP | 18.52% | |||
| Sinn Féin | 16.67% | |||
| Alliance | 5.56% | |||
| United Kingdom Unionist | 4.63% | |||
| Progressive Unionist | 1.85% | |||
| Womens' Coalition | 1.85% | |||
| Independent | 2.78% | |||
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)
See also
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 7 October 2008, at 19:54.
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