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The 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election (representing an increase of 5.9% compared to the previous Assembly election). Turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 703,744 (54.9%), a decline of less than one percentage point from the previous Assembly Election in 2011, but down 15 percentage points from the first election to the Assembly held in 1998. As in the 2007 and 2011 elections, the Democratic Unionist Party and
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
won the most seats, with the DUP winning 38 and Sinn Féin winning 28 of the available 108 seats. The
Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...
won 16 seats, the
Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
12 and the
Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
8, while two seats were won by the Green Party and
People Before Profit People Before Profit ( ga, Pobal Roimh Bhrabús, PBP) is a left-wing to far-left Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005. It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. History PBP was established in 2005 as t ...
. The
Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place ...
and an
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
candidate each won one seat.


Change of date

Under the
Northern Ireland Act 1998 __NOTOC__ The Northern Ireland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed Westminster to devolve power to Northern Ireland, after decades of direct rule. It renamed the New Northern Ireland Assembly, established b ...
, elections to the Assembly were originally for a four-year term; thus there would have been an election due in May 2015, four years after the 2011 election. Following the introduction of the UK Fixed Term Parliaments Act, this date would have clashed with the
2015 UK general election The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and only general election held at the end of a Parliament under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Local ...
. The Scottish Parliament and
Welsh Assembly The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh ...
elections were postponed for a year to 2016 to avoid this clash. In May 2013,
Theresa Villiers Theresa Anne Villiers (born 5 March 1968) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chipping Barnet since 2005, having previously served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005. A member of the ...
, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced the next Assembly election would be postponed to May 2016, and would be held at fixed intervals of five years thereafter. Section 7 of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 specifies that elections will be held on the first Thursday in May on the fifth (rather than fourth, as previously) calendar year following that in which its predecessor was elected.


End of dual mandate

The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 also ends the practice of dual mandate, prohibiting someone being elected to the assembly who is also a member of the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
or Dáil Éireann. At the time the Act was passed, there were three such dual-members: the DUP's Sammy Wilson ( MP for East Antrim and MLA for East Antrim) and Gregory Campbell ( MP for East Londonderry and MLA for East Londonderry) and the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell ( MP for Belfast South and MLA for Belfast South). Wilson and McDonnell resigned from the Assembly after being re-elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 election. Campbell, who was also re-elected as an MP, is retiring from the Assembly at this election.


Earlier dissolution

There are several circumstances in which the Assembly could be dissolved before the date scheduled by virtue of section 31(1) of the
Northern Ireland Act 1998 __NOTOC__ The Northern Ireland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed Westminster to devolve power to Northern Ireland, after decades of direct rule. It renamed the New Northern Ireland Assembly, established b ...
.


Dissolution motion

Under section 32 of the 1998 Act, the Assembly can be dissolved if a resolution to such an effect is passed by the Assembly, with support of 72 or more members.


Failure to elect the First or deputy First Ministers

The Act provides that if the Assembly fails to elect either the First Minister or deputy First Minister within six weeks, an election is called. Since the enactment of the
Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 The Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 (c 53) is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It implemented the St Andrews Agreement. It is modified by section 1 of the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) ...
, the First Minister has been nominated by the largest party of the largest community designation, and the deputy First Minister has been nominated by the largest party in the second largest community designation ("Nationalist", "Unionist" or "Other").


New Executive Departments

It was proposed that after the May 2016 Election there be a reduction in the number of ministries and departments. The amendments were: * The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister is renamed the Executive Office * The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is renamed the
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration for Northern Ireland. The minister with overall responsibility for the department i ...
* The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment is renamed the
Department for the Economy The Department for the Economy (DfE, ga, An Roinn Geilleagair) is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister for the Econo ...
* The Department of Finance and Personnel is renamed the Department of Finance * The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety is renamed the
Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...
* The Department for Regional Development is renamed the Department for Infrastructure * The Department for Social Development is renamed the Department for Communities * The Department of Justice remains unchanged
Department of Justice (Northern Ireland) The Department of Justice (Irish: ''An Roinn Dlí agus Cirt'', Ulster-Scots: ''Männystrie o tha Laa'') is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, which was established on 12 April 2010 as part of the devolution of justice ...
* The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is dissolved * The Department of the Environment is dissolved * The Department for Employment and Learning is dissolved ° The Department of Education remains the same.


Candidates

Nominations opened on 30 March 2016 for the assembly election. A full list of candidates is available. Parties standing in more than one constituency were: * Democratic Unionist Party *
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
*
Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...
*
Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
*
Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
*
Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place ...
(TUV) * Green Party *
Progressive Unionist Party The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a minor unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979. Linked to the Ulster Volunte ...
*
People Before Profit Alliance People Before Profit ( ga, Pobal Roimh Bhrabús, PBP) is a left-wing to far-left Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005. It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. History PBP was established in 2005 as ...
*
UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...
* Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol *
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
* Northern Ireland Labour Representation Committee *
Cross-Community Labour Alternative Cross-Community Labour Alternative is a minor political party founded to contest the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election. It stood three candidates in the East Belfast, South Belfast and East Antrim constituencies. It was initiated by the ...
* The Workers Party Various independents and smaller parties also stood.


Members not seeking re-election


Alliance

* Judith Cochrane ( Belfast East) *
Anna Lo Anna Manwah Lo (born 17 June 1950) is an Alliance Party politician in Northern Ireland.
( Belfast South) * Kieran McCarthy ( Strangford)


DUP

* Gregory Campbell ( East Londonderry) * Stephen Moutray ( Upper Bann) * Peter Robinson ( Belfast East)


NI21 NI21 was a short-lived political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 2013 by ex-Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister. Although it explicitly supported Northern Ireland staying part of the United Kingdom (i.e. un ...

* Basil McCrea ( Lagan Valley)


SDLP

* Dominic Bradley ( Newry and Armagh) *
John Dallat John Dallat (24 March 1947 – 5 May 2020) was an Irish politician in the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) who represented East Londonderry in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2016, and then from 2017 until his death in 2 ...
( East Londonderry) * Alban Maginness ( Belfast North)


Sinn Féin

* Bronwyn McGahan ( Fermanagh and South Tyrone) * Mitchel McLaughlin ( South Antrim)


UUP

* Leslie Cree ( North Down) * Sam Gardiner ( Upper Bann) * Michael McGimpsey ( Belfast South)


UKIP

* David McNarry ( Strangford)


Results

The 2016 election was held using STV and 18 multi-seat districts, each electing 6 members.


Distribution of seats by constituency

Party affiliation of the six Assembly members returned by each constituency. The first column indicates the party of the Member of the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
(MP) returned by the corresponding parliamentary constituency in the general election of 7 May 2015 (under the "
first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...
" method). (The constituencies are arranged here in rough geographical order around Lough Neagh from Antrim to Londonderry. To see them in alphabetical order, click the small square icon after "Constituency"; to restore this geographical order, click the icon after "No." at the left.) * Three of the four independents elected in 1998 ran as
Independent Unionist Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom, indicating a support for British unionism (not to be confused with trade unionism). It is most popularly associated with candidates in elect ...
s * NIWC =
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) was a minor cross-community political party in Northern Ireland from 1996 to 2006. The NIWC was founded by Catholic academic Monica McWilliams and Protestant social worker Pearl Sagar to contest ele ...
; Prog. U. =
Progressive Unionist Party The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a minor unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979. Linked to the Ulster Volunte ...
; TUV =
Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place ...
; UKUP = United Kingdom Unionist Party


Share of first-preference votes

Percentage of each constituency's first-preference votes. Four highest percentages in each constituency shaded; absolute majorities underlined. The constituencies are arranged in the geographic order described for the table above; click the icon next to "Constituency" to see them in alphabetical order. *[The totals given here are the sum of all valid ballots cast in each constituency, and the percentages are based on such totals. The turnout percentages in the last column, however, are based upon all ballots cast, which also include anything from twenty to a thousand invalid ballots in each constituency. The total valid ballots' percentage of the eligible electorate can correspondingly differ by 0.1% to 2% from the turnout percentage.] *
Independent Unionist Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom, indicating a support for British unionism (not to be confused with trade unionism). It is most popularly associated with candidates in elect ...
vote in 1998 (2.8%) included in the Independent column (not "others"). TUV =
Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place ...
.


Incumbents defeated


Sinn Féin

* Rosie McCorleyBelfast West * Maeve McLaughlinFoyle * Cathal Ó hOisínEast Londonderry * Phil FlanaganFermanagh and South Tyrone


Democratic Unionist Party

* Jonathan CraigLagan Valley *
Ian McCrea Ian McCrea (born 12 June 1976) is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, representing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). He was elected in 2007 as a Northern Ireland Assembly member for Mid Ulster, and lost his seat in the 2016 Assembly ...
Mid Ulster * David McIlveenNorth Antrim


Ulster Unionist Party

* Alastair PattersonFermanagh and South Tyrone * Adrian Cochrane-Watson - South Antrim


Social Democratic and Labour Party

* Dolores KellyUpper Bann * Gerard DiverFoyle * Karen McKevittSouth Down (stood in Newry and Armagh) * Fearghal McKinneyBelfast South * Seán RogersSouth Down


Independent

* John McCallisterSouth Down


Opinion Polling


Graphical summary


References


Manifestos


''Manifesto 2016''
Alliance
''Our Plan for Northern Ireland''
Democratic Unionist Party
''A Zero Waste Strategy for Northern Ireland''
Green Party Northern Ireland
''Better With Sinn Féin''
Sinn Féin
''Build a Better Future''
Social Democratic and Labour Party
''Straight Talking Principled Politics''
Traditional Unionist Voice
''Northern Ireland Assembly Manifesto 2016''
Democratic Unionist Party
''It's Time For Real Change''
UK Independence Party
''Standing Against Austerity''
Workers' Party of Ireland {{Northern Ireland Assembly
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
2016 elections in the United Kingdom May 2016 events in the United Kingdom 2016 elections in Northern Ireland