6th Northern Ireland Assembly
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This is a list of the 90 members of the sixth
Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...
, the unicameral devolved legislature of
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. The
election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
took place on 2 March 2017, with counting finishing the following day; voter turnout was estimated at 64.8%. Only five (rather than six)
MLAs A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nationa ...
were elected from each of the 18
constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...
, following the
Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 The Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 is a 2016 Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It provided for a reduction of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the Assembly from 108 to 90 for the first elect ...
. The reduction negatively affected Unionist candidates whose
bloc Bloc may refer to: Government and politics * Political bloc, a coalition of political parties * Trade bloc, a type of intergovernmental agreement * Voting bloc, a group of voters voting together * Black bloc, a tactic used by protesters who wear ...
lost its majority for the first time in the history of the Assembly. The
SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...
was also negatively impacted, losing its only West Belfast seat. Incumbent
Speaker Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Speaker" (song), by David ...
Robin Newton Robert "Robin" Gray Newton MBE (born 21 December 1945) is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland representing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). He was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 2003 to 2022 ...
informally convened the Assembly on 22 March to pay tribute to the former deputy First Minister
Martin McGuinness James Martin Pacelli McGuinness (; 23 May 1950 – 21 March 2017) was an Irish republican politician and statesman for Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles. He was the deputy First Minist ...
, who had died the day before. However, with the DUP and Sinn Féin unable to agree to form their mandatory coalition government, the Assembly did not formally convene. On 27 April, talks were paused until after a snap general election on 8 June, with a deadline of 29 June 2017 for the parties to reach agreement, but this deadline was repeatedly extended over the next three years. The DUP, Sinn Féin and other parties finally agreed terms on 10 January 2020.


Party strengths


Graphical representation

File:NIAssembly20170302.svg, As elected, 2 March 2017 File:Sixth (NI) Assembly.svg, 9 May 2018 File:NI Assembly 5 Jan 2020.svg, Current composition, from 10 January 2019 File:NIAssembly20200111.svg, Current composition following the election of the Speaker from Sinn Féin, 11 January 2020
''Parties arranged roughly on the nationalist-unionist spectrum''


MLAs by party

† Co-opted to replace an elected MLA ‡ Changed affiliation during the term


MLAs by constituency

† Co-opted to replace an elected MLA ‡ Changed affiliation during the term


Changes since the election


† Co-options


‡ Changes in affiliation


Notes


References

{{Northern Ireland Assembly Lists of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly