Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003

The 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election 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. Each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates.

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

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 falling by a third, 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

References

Manifestos

''Alliance Works''
Alliance

''Fair Deal Manifesto 2003
Democratic Unionist Party

''Meeting the Challenges - Seizing the Opportunities''
Green Party Northern Ireland

''Assembly Election 2003''
Northern Ireland Conservatives

''Change the Face of Politics''
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition

''2003 Election Manifesto''
Progressive Unionist Party

''Agenda for Government''
Sinn Féin

''Reshaping Government, Rebuilding Public Services''
Social Democratic and Labour Party

''Turn the Tide''
Socialist Environmental Alliance

''Manifesto 2003''
Ulster Unionist Party

''It Wont Work... Without the Workers' Party''
Workers' Party of Ireland

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2003

2003
2003 elections in the United Kingdom
2003 in Northern Ireland
November 2003 events in the United Kingdom
2003 elections in Northern Ireland