The 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by ...

(DUP) 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 ...

, along with the Alliance Party, increase their support, with falls in support for 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 ...

(UUP) and 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 ...

(SDLP). The 2007 election was held using STV and 18 multi-seat districts, each electing 6 members.

Background

At the

2003 election The following elections occurred in the year 2003. Africa * 2003 Beninese parliamentary election * 2003 Djiboutian parliamentary election * 2003 Guinean presidential election * 2003 Mauritanian presidential election * 2003 Nigerian parliamentary ...

the DUP became the largest party. As it opposed the Belfast Agreement, there was no prospect of the assembly voting for the First and deputy First Ministers. Therefore, the

British Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

did not restore power to the Assembly and the elected members never met. Instead there commenced a protracted series of negotiations. During these negotiations a legally separate assembly, known as ''The Assembly'' consisting of the members elected in 2003 was formed in May 2006 to enable the parties to negotiate and to prepare for government. Eventually, in October 2006, the governments and the parties, including the DUP, made the St Andrews Agreement and a new ''transitional assembly'' came into effect on 24 November 2006. The British government agreed to fresh elections and the transitional assembly was dissolved on 30 January 2007, after which campaigning began.

The process

The election was conducted using the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

applied to six-seat constituencies, each of which corresponds to a UK parliamentary seat. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister were chosen by the largest parties from the two different political designations. Parties who won seats were then allocated places on the executive committee in proportion to their seats in the Assembly using the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highe ...

The campaign

The major parties standing were the

(DUP) and the

(UUP) on the Unionist side, and

and the

(SDLP) on the

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

side. The largest cross-community party, the

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assemb ...

, contested the election in 17 of 18 constituencies. Smaller parties also included the

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 Volunt ...

, the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundati ...

and the

UK Unionist Party The UK Unionist Party (UKUP) was a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008 that opposed the Good Friday Agreement. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, to contest the ...

. Some

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 * Independe ...

Unionists also stood. Among the other parties that stood, the

Conservatives 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 i ...

nominated nine and there were six candidates for the Workers' Party. Also there were four candidates for Make Politicians History and two for the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

. Six Republican Sinn Féin-aligned candidates also stood. As the party had chosen not to register as a political party with the electoral commission, the party name did not appear alongside its candidates on ballot papers. One of the key issues in the election was which two political parties would gain the largest number of Assembly seats. The St Andrews Agreement stated that the First Minister will be chosen from the largest party of the largest political designation and the Deputy First Minister from the largest party from the second largest political designation; however, the actual legislation states that the largest party shall make the nomination regardless of designation.

Results

The DUP remained the largest party in the Assembly, making significant gains from the UUP. Sinn Féin made gains from the SDLP and was the largest party among the Nationalists. The only other Assembly Party to make gains was the liberal Alliance Party (winning seven seats, a gain of one), while the

and independent health campaigner Dr Kieran Deeny retained their single seats, and were joined by the Green Party, which won its first Assembly seat, and increased its first preference votes fourfold from 2003. The UK Unionist Party lost its representation in the Assembly. They had contested 12 seats, with Robert McCartney standing in six of them. Overall, Unionist parties were collectively down 4 seats, Nationalist parties were collectively up 2 seats, and others were up 2 seats. The election was notable as it saw the first Chinese-born person to be elected to a parliamentary institution in Europe: Anna Lo of the Alliance Party.

Executive Committee seats

Parties who won seats are allocated places on the

Executive Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

using the D'Hondt method and under the St Andrews agreement the largest party gets the right to nominate the first minister and the largest party perceived to be from "the other side" nominates the deputy first minister. Despite the name these offices are in fact of equal right. Note that they are both ministers in the same department (Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister). Using this system, the executive appointed in 2007 was as follows: There are two junior ministers in OFMDFM who are, at present, Jeffery Donaldson (DUP) and Gerry Kelly (SF). In April 2010, the Department of Justice was formed, being led by David Ford from the Alliance Party. This is the Alliance Party's first ministerial role.

Opinion polls

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

Ipsos MORI Ipsos MORI was the name of a market research company based in London, England which is now known as Ipsos and still continues as the UK arm of the global Ipsos group. It was formed by a merger of Ipsos UK and MORI in October 2005. The company ...

, published in '' The Belfast Telegraph'' on 1 March 2007, reported the voting intentions of those who intended to vote and had decided which party to vote for:

MLAs who lost their seats at the election

* Michael Copeland (UUP, Belfast East) * Esmond Birnie (UUP, Belfast South) * Diane Dodds (DUP, Belfast West) * Norman Hillis (UUP, East Londonderry) *

Marietta Farrell Marietta Farrell (born 26 October 1951) is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valley between January and March 2007. Born in County Sligo, Farrell ...

(SDLP,

Lagan Valley The Lagan Valley (, Ulster Scots: ''Glen Lagan'') is an area of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Lisburn. The River Lagan rises on Slieve Croob in County Down and flows generally northward discharging into Belfast Lough. For a section, the ...

) * Billy Bell (UUP,

) * Paul Berry (Ind, Newry and Armagh) * Davy Hyland (Ind, Newry and Armagh) * Robert McCartney (UKUP, North Down) * George Ennis (UKUP,

Strangford Strangford (from Old Norse ''Strangr fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet") is a small village at the mouth of Strangford Lough, on the Lecale peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 475 at the 2001 Census. On the ...

) *

Eugene McMenamin Eugene McMenamin (1947), is a former Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician from Northern Ireland, who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for West Tyrone from 1998 to 2007. He stood as an independent candida ...

(SDLP, West Tyrone) * Derek Hussey (UUP, West Tyrone) Notes: Berry and Ennis were originally elected as DUP candidates, Hyland was originally elected as a Sinn Féin candidate.

MLAs who stood down at the election

* Eileen Bell (Alliance/Speaker, North Down) * Seamus Close (Alliance, Lagan Valley) *

Geraldine Dougan Geraldine Dougan is a former Irish politician. She was elected in 2003 as a Sinn Féin Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Mid Ulster

(Sinn Féin, Mid Ulster) *

Sean Farren Sean Nial Farren (born 6 September 1939) is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician and academic who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim from 1998 to 2007. Academic Career Farren studied ...

(SDLP, North Antrim) * Patricia Lewsley^† (SDLP, Lagan Valley) *

Philip McGuigan Philip McGuigan (born 1973) is a Northern Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim since 2016, having previously served from 2003 to 2007. He is a former member of Ballymoney ...

(Sinn Féin, North Antrim) * Dermot Nesbitt (UUP, South Down) * Tom O'Reilly (Sinn Féin, Fermanagh and South Tyrone) *

Kathy Stanton Kathy Stanton is a former Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, on which she represented Belfast North for Sinn Féin. Stanton was co-opted to Belfast City Council in 2000, before losing her seat in the 2001 local government elections. She ...

(Sinn Féin, North Belfast) * Lord Kilclooney (UUP, Strangford) *

Lord Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He was ...

(UUP, Upper Bann) * Jim Wilson (UUP, South Antrim) ^†Patricia Lewsley stood down prior to the dissolution of the assembly

MLAs deselected by their party

* Wilson Clyde (DUP, South Antrim) * George Ennis (DUP, Strangford) * Paul Girvan (DUP, South Antrim) * Davy Hyland (Sinn Féin, Newry and Armagh) *

Patricia O'Rawe Patricia O'Rawe (died 12 December 2017) was an Irish republican who formerly served as a politician in Northern Ireland. O'Rawe was first elected to Armagh City and District Council in 2001, representing Sinn Féin. At the 2003 Northern Irelan ...

(Sinn Féin, Newry and Armagh) * Norah Beare^↑ (DUP, Lagan Valley) * Mark Robinson (DUP, Belfast South) ^↑ As a sitting MLA, Norah Beare defected from the UUP to the DUP, and is therefore unselected rather than deselected. Following their de-selection, both Ennis and Hyland unsuccessfully sought election under the UKUP and independent labels respectively.

MLAs deceased since 2003 election

David Ervine David Ervine (21 July 1953 – 8 January 2007) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist politician who served as leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2002 to 2007, and was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Bel ...

(PUP, Belfast East) * Michael Ferguson (Sinn Féin, Belfast West)

References

External links

RTÉ News – Northern Ireland 2007 elections

BBC Guide to the elections

Electoral Commission guide to election

Manifestos

''The Alternative - An Agenda for a United Community''
Alliance
''Getting it Right''
Democratic Unionist Party
''For All Our Futures''
Green Party Northern Ireland
''New Politics for a New Northern Ireland''
Northern Ireland Conservatives
''A New Dawn''
Progressive Unionist Party
''Smash Stormont''
Republican Sinn Féin
''Delivering for Ireland's Future''
Sinn Féin
''Let's Deliver Real Progress''
Social Democratic and Labour Party
''The Only Alternative''
Socialist Environmental Alliance
''For All of Us''
Ulster Unionist Party
''Assembly Manifesto 2007''
Workers' Party of Ireland {{United Kingdom local elections, 2007

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

2007 in Northern Ireland 2007 elections in the United Kingdom March 2007 events in the United Kingdom 2007 elections in Northern Ireland