Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998

25 June 1998

All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly 55 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	David Trimble	John Hume	Ian Paisley
Party	UUP	SDLP	DUP
Leader since	8 September 1995	28 November 1979	30 September 1971
Leader's seat	Upper Bann	Foyle	North Antrim
Last election	30 seats (24.2%)	21 seats (21.4%)	24 seats (18.8%)
Seats won	28	24	20
Seat change	2	3	4
Popular vote	172,225	177,963	145,917
Percentage	21.3%	22.0%	18.5%
Swing	2.9%	0.6%	0.3%

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Gerry Adams	John Alderdice	Robert McCartney
Party	Sinn Féin	Alliance	UK Unionist
Leader since	13 November 1983	3 October 1987	1995
Leader's seat	Belfast West	Belfast East	North Down
Last election	17 seats (15.5%)	7 seats (6.5%)	3 seats (3.7%)
Seats won	18	6	5
Seat change	1	1	2
Popular vote	142,858	52,636	36,541
Percentage	16.7%	5.6%	4.5%
Swing	1.2%	0.9%	0.8%

Percentage of seats gained by each of the party.

First Minister before election

New position

Elected First Minister

David Trimble
UUP

The first elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on Thursday 25 June 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.

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Results

The result was (first preference votes only):

	Party	Leader	Seats	% of seats	Votes	% of vote	Rank
	UUP	Trimble, DavidDavid Trimble	28	25.9%	172,225	21.28%	2
	SDLP	Hume, JohnJohn Hume	24	22.2%	177,963	21.99%	1
	DUP	Paisley, IanIan Paisley	20	18.5%	145,917	18.03%	3
	Sinn Féin	Adams, GerryGerry Adams	18	16.7%	142,858	17.65%	4
	Alliance	Alderdice, JohnJohn Alderdice	6	5.6%	52,636	6.50%	5
	UK Unionist	McCartney, RobertRobert McCartney	5	4.6%	36,541	4.52%	6
	Independent Unionist		3	2.8%	24,339	3.00%	7
	PUP	Smyth, HughHugh Smyth	2	1.9%	20,634	2.55%	8
	NI Women's Coalition	McWilliams, MonicaMonica McWilliams	2	1.9%	13,019	1.61%	9
	Ulster Democratic	McMichael, GaryGary McMichael	0		8,651	1.07%	10
	Independent		0		5,392	0.69%	*
	Labour Party NI	Curran, MalachiMalachi Curran	0		2,729	0.34%	11
	Workers' Party	French, TomTom French	0		1,989	0.25%	12
	NI Conservatives	Hague, WilliamWilliam Hague	0		1,835	0.23%	13
	Ulster Independence	Ross, HughHugh Ross	0		1,227	0.15%	17
	Natural Law	Anderson, JamesJames Anderson	0		832	0.10%	18
	Socialist Party	Higgins, JoeJoe 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%
Women's 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%
Women's 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 different 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)

Elections and referendums in Northern Ireland

NI general elections	1921 1925 1929 1933 1938 1945 1949 1953 1958 1962 1965 1969

Ad-hoc elections	1973 1975 1982 1996

Assembly elections	1998 2003 2007 2011 2016

European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014

Local elections	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 2014

Referendums	1973 1975 1998 2011

UK general elections	2001 2005 2010 2015

See also: Elections in the Kingdom of Ireland Elections in Ireland as part of the UK UK elections

(1997 ←) United Kingdom local elections, 1998 (→ 1999)

London boroughs	London Borough councils Barking and Dagenham Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston upon Thames Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond upon Thames Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth Westminster

Metropolitan boroughs	Barnsley Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton

Unitary authorities	Bristol Derby Hartlepool Isle of Wight Kingston upon Hull Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire Portsmouth Southampton Stoke-on-Trent Swindon

District councils (England)	Adur Amber Valley Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bedford Brentwood Broadland Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Carlisle Cheltenham Cherwell Chester Chorley Colchester Congleton Craven Crawley Crewe and Nantwich Daventry Eastbourne Eastleigh Ellesmere Port and Neston Elmbridge Epping Forest Exeter Fareham Gloucester Gosport Great Yarmouth Harlow Harrogate Hart Hastings Havant Hertsmere Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Ipswich Lincoln Macclesfield Maidstone Mole Valley Newcastle-under-Lyme North Hertfordshire Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oxford Pendle Penwith Preston Purbeck Redditch Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor Shrewsbury and Atcham South Bedfordshire South Cambridgeshire South Lakeland St Albans Stevenage Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Swale Tamworth Tandridge Three Rivers Tunbridge Wells Watford Waveney Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Lindsey West Oxfordshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Worcester Worthing Wyre Forest

National Assembly elections	Northern Ireland

Referendums	Greater London Authority Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement

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Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998

Results

Votes summary

Seats summary

Details

See also