Northern Ireland general election, 1969

24 February 1969

All 52 seats to the Northern Ireland House of Commons 27 seats were needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Terence O'Neill	Eddie McAteer	Tom Boyd
Party	UUP	Nationalist	NI Labour
Leader since	25 March 1963	2 June 1964	1958
Leader's seat	Bannside	Foyle (Defeated)	Belfast Pottinger (Defeated)
Last election	36 seats (59.1%)	9 seats (8.2%)	2 seats (20.4%)
Seats won	36	6	2
Seat change	0	3	0
Popular vote	269,501	42,315	45,113
Percentage	48.2%	7.6%	8.1%
Swing	10.9%	0.6%	12.3%

Election results by constituency.

Prime Minister before election

Terence O'Neill
UUP

Elected Prime Minister

Terence O'Neill
UUP

Northern Ireland 1921–72

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See also Fourth Home Rule Bill Constitution Act 1973
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The Northern Ireland general election, 1969 was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.

Unlike previous elections that produced a large unambiguous majority for the Ulster Unionist Party, this one give more complex results. The Ulster Unionists were divided over a variety of reforms introduced by Prime Minister Terence O'Neill and this division spilled over into the election with official Ulster Unionist candidates standing either in support of or opposition to O'Neill and a number of independent pro O'Neill Unionists standing against opposing candidates. The results left O'Neill without a clear majority for his reforms and he resigned not long afterwards.

This was the first (and only) election since the 1929 election to see changes to the constituencies. The Queen's University of Belfast seat was abolished and four new constituencies were created in the suburbs of Belfast to compensate for population growth there.

Results

Northern Ireland General Election 1969
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	UUP	44	36	4	4	0	69.2	48.2	269,501	-10.9
	Independent Unionist	18	3	3	0	+ 3	5.8	15.6	86,052	+15.6
	NI Labour	16	2	1	1	0	3.8	8.1	45,113	-12.3
	Nationalist	9	6	0	3	- 3	11.5	7.6	42,315	-0.6
	National Democratic	7	0	0	1	- 1		4.6	26,009	-0.1
	People's Democracy	8	0	0	0	0		4.2	23,645	+4.2
	Independent	4	3	3	1	+ 2	5.8	3.9	21,977	+3.9
	Protestant Unionist	5	0	0	0	0		3.8	20,991	+3.8
	Republican Labour	5	2	1	1	0	3.8	2.4	13,115	+1.4
	Liberal	2	0	0	1	- 1		1.3	7,337	-2.6
	People's Progressive	1	0	0	0	0		0.5	2,992	+0.5

Electorate: 912,087 (778,031 in contested seats); Turnout: 71.9% (559,087).

Votes summary

Popular vote

Pro-O'Neill Unionist			27.6%
Anti-O'Neill Unionist			20.6%
Ind. Pro-O'Neill Unionist			12.9%
Labour			8.07%
Nationalist			7.57%
National Democratic			4.65%
Peoples' Democracy			4.23%
Independent			3.93%
Protestant Unionist			3.75%
Independent Unionist			2.49%
Republican Labour			2.35%
Ulster Liberal			1.31%
People's Progressive			0.54%
Total Ulster Unionist			48.2%
Total Pro-O'Neill Unionist			40.5%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Pro-O'Neill Unionist			44.23%
Anti-O'Neill Unionist			25%
Ind. Pro-O'Neill Unionist			5.77%
Labour			3.85%
Nationalist			11.54%
Independent			5.77%
Republican Labour			3.85%
Total Ulster Unionist			69.23%
Total Pro-O'Neill Unionist			50%

References

Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results

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

Parliament of Northern Ireland constituencies

1921–1929	1929–1973

Antrim	Antrim Borough Bannside Carrick Larkfield (from 1969) Larne Mid Antrim Newtownabbey (from 1969) North Antrim South Antrim

Armagh	Central Armagh Mid Armagh North Armagh South Armagh

Belfast East	Belfast Bloomfield Belfast Dock Belfast Pottinger Belfast Victoria

Belfast North	Belfast Clifton Belfast Duncairn Belfast Oldpark Belfast Shankill

Belfast South	Belfast Ballynafeigh Belfast Cromac Belfast Willowfield Belfast Windsor

Belfast West	Belfast Central Belfast Falls Belfast St Anne's Belfast Woodvale

Down	Ards Bangor (from 1969) East Down Iveagh Lagan Valley (from 1969) Mid Down Mourne North Down South Down West Down

Fermanagh and Tyrone	East Tyrone Enniskillen Lisnaskea Mid Tyrone North Tyrone South Fermanagh South Tyrone West Tyrone

Londonderry	City of Londonderry Foyle Mid Londonderry North Londonderry South Londonderry

Queen's University	Queen's University (to 1969)

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Northern Ireland general election, 1969

Results

Votes summary

Seats summary

See also

References