South Down (Assembly constituency)

South Down
County Constituency for the Northern Ireland Assembly
South Down shown within Northern Ireland
Districts	Down, Banbridge, Newry and Mourne
Current constituency
Created	1973
Assembly Members	Chris Hazzard John McCallister Karen McKevitt Seán Rogers Caitríona Ruane Jim Wells

South Down is an electoral constituency for the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973. It usually shares boundaries with the South Down UK Parliament constituency, however the boundaries of the two constituencies were slightly different from 1983 to 1986 as the Assembly boundaries had not caught up with Parliamentary boundary changes and from 1996 to 1997 when members of the Northern Ireland Forum had been elected from the newly drawn Parliamentary constituencies but the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected in 1992 under the 1983–95 constituency boundaries, was still in session.

Members were then elected from the constituency to the 1975 Constitutional Convention, the 1982 Assembly, the 1996 Forum and then to the current Assembly from 1998.

Some of the most high-profile MLA's for the constituency include Caitríona Ruane, Margaret Ritchie, and John McCallister.

For further details on the history and boundaries of the constituency, see South Down (UK Parliament constituency).

Members

Northern Ireland Assembly (1998–present)

Election
1998	Eddie McGrady (SDLP)	P. J. Bradley (SDLP)	Eamonn O'Neill (SDLP)	Mick Murphy (Sinn Féin)	Dermot Nesbitt (UUP)	Jim Wells (DUP)
2003	Margaret Ritchie (SDLP)		Willie Clarke (Sinn Féin)	Caitriona Ruane (Sinn Féin)	Dermot Nesbitt (UUP)
2007					John McCallister (UUP/Independent)
2011		Karen McKevitt (SDLP)
April 2012 co-option	Seán Rogers (SDLP)	Karen McKevitt (SDLP)	Chris Hazzard (Sinn Féin)
2016	Sinead Bradley (SDLP)	Colin McGrath (SDLP)	Chris Hazzard (Sinn Féin)		Harold McKee (UUP)

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Other (1973–1996)

In the 1996 election to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum, 5 Forum members were elected from South Down. They were as follows:

In 1982 elections were held for an Assembly for Northern Ireland to hold the Secretary of State to account, in the hope that this would be the first step towards restoring devolution. South Down elected seven members as follows:

William Brown Ulster Unionist Party
Frank Feely Social Democratic and Labour Party
George Graham Democratic Unionist Party
Raymond McCullough Ulster Unionist Party
Eddie McGrady Social Democratic and Labour Party
Patrick O'Donoghue Social Democratic and Labour Party
Jim Wells Democratic Unionist Party

Raymond McCullough died in 1985 and the resulting by-election, on 17 October 1985, was won by Jeffrey Donaldson, also Ulster Unionist Party.

In 1975 elections were held to a Constitutional Convention which sought (unsuccessfully) to generate a consensus on the future of the province. The seven members elected from South Down were:

In 1973 elections were held to the Assembly set up under the Sunningdale Agreement. The seven members elected from South Down were:

Ronald Broadhurst Ulster Unionist Party (pro-White Paper)
Brian Faulkner Ulster Unionist Party (pro-White Paper)
Frank Feely Social Democratic and Labour Party
Cecil Harvey Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Herbert Heslip Ulster Unionist Party (anti-White Paper)
Eddie McGrady Social Democratic and Labour Party
Patrick O'Donoghue Social Democratic and Labour Party

Elections

Northern Ireland Assembly

2016

2016 Assembly election: South Down – 6 Seats
Party		Candidate	% 1st Pref	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8
	DUP	Jim Wells	12.3	5,033	5,183	6,470
	UUP	Harold McKee	8.5	3,481	3,812	5,168	5,567	6,141
	Sinn Féin	Chris Hazzard^[1]	12.3	5,045	5,142	5,144	5,321	5,321.50	7,277.50
	SDLP	Sinead Bradley^[2]	12.3	5,059	5,231	5,241	5,828	5,834	6,144
	Sinn Féin	Caitríona Ruane^[1]	10.2	4,191	4,240	4,244	4,335	4,335	5,415	6,664.50
	SDLP	Colin McGrath^[2]	10.4	4,288	4,429	4,440	5,033	5,038	5,121	5,190	5,397
	SDLP	Seán Rogers^[2]	8.7	3,564	3,699	3,721	4,076	4,086.50	4,227.50	4,309	4,595.75
	Sinn Féin	Michael Gray-Sloan^[1]	8.6	3,520	3,571	3,572	3,665	3,665
	Alliance	Patrick Brown	5.4	2,200	2,841	2,869
	TUV	Henry Reilly	6.6	2,718	2,800
	Independent	John McCallister	2.8	1,156
	Green (NI)	John Hardy^[3]	2.0	820
Electorate: - Valid: - Spoilt: - Quota: - Turnout: -

2011

2011 Assembly Election: South Down
Party		Candidate	% 1st Pref	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie	20.4	8,506
	Sinn Féin	Caitriona Ruane	14.3	5,955	6,192.15
	DUP	Jim Wells	12.5	5,200	5,284.84	5,354.56	5,404.28	6,543.28
	UUP	John McCallister	10.6	4,409	4,480.92	4,624.88	4,714.77	5,679.90	6,329.60
	Sinn Féin	Willie Clarke	9.3	3,882	3,957.95	3,992.50	4,094.15	4,101.46	4,103.20	6,777.20
	SDLP	Karen McKevitt	9.0	3,758	4,318.79	4,432.71	4,675.33	4,702.43	4,707.27	4,842.93	5,277.28	5,347.46
	SDLP	Eamon O'Neill	6.4	2,633	3,844.72	3,959.19	4,222.77	4,251.35	4,259.47	4,449.46	4,826.14	4,882.98
	Sinn Féin	Naomi Bailie	7.3	3,050	3,150.44	3,161.06	3,305.46	3,306.77	3,308.51
	UKIP	Henry Reilly	5.6	2,322	2,353.29	2,373.70	2,398.94
	Green (NI)	Cadogan Enright	2.7	1,107	1,227.28	1,238.75
	Alliance	David Griffin	2.7	864	915.15
Electorate: 73,240 Valid: 41,276 Spoilt: 825 Quota: 5,961 Turnout: 42,551 (58.1%)

2007

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	Sinn Féin	Caitriona Ruane	6,334	Elected	7
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie	5,838	Elected	8
	SDLP	P. J. Bradley	5,652	Elected	9
	DUP	Jim Wells	5,542	Elected	10
	Sinn Féin	Willie Clarke	5,138	Elected	8
	UUP	John McCallister	4,447	Elected	11
	SDLP	Michael Carr	2,972	Not elected	11
	Sinn Féin	Eamonn McConvey	2,662	Not elected	7
	DUP	William Burns	2,611	Not elected	9
	Green (NI)	Ciaran Mussen	1,622	Not elected	6
	UKIP	Henry Reilly	1,229	Not elected	5
	Alliance	David Griffin	691	Not elected	4
	Independent (Republican)	Martin Cunningham	434	Not elected	4
	UK Unionist	Frederick Wharton	424	Not elected	4
	NI Conservatives	Peter Bowles	391	Not elected	3
	Labour Party NI	Malachi Curran	123	Not elected	2

2003

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	DUP	Jim Wells	6,789	Elected	1
	UUP	Dermot Nesbitt	5,368	Elected	8
	SDLP	P. J. Bradley	5,337	Elected	4
	Sinn Féin	Caitriona Ruane	5,118	Elected	9
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie	4,261	Elected	9
	Sinn Féin	Willie Clarke	4,083	Elected	9
	SDLP	Eamonn O'Neill	3,942	Not elected
	UUP	Jim Donaldson	2,885	Not elected
	Sinn Féin	Eamonn McConvey	2,806	Not elected
	SDLP	Marion Fitzpatrick	2,382	Not elected
	Green (NI)	Raymond Blaney	799	Not elected
	NI Women's Coalition	Trudy Miller	565	Not elected
	Alliance	Neil Powell	489	Not elected
	UK Unionist	Nelson Wharton	245	Not elected
	Independent	Malachi Curran	162	Not elected
	Workers' Party	Desmond O'Hagan	115	Not elected

1998

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998
Party		Candidate	1st Pref	Result	Count
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	10,373	Elected
	Sinn Féin	Mick Murphy	6,251	Elected
	SDLP	P. J. Bradley	5,571	Elected
	UUP	Dermot Nesbitt	5,480	Elected
	DUP	Jim Wells	4,826	Elected
	SDLP	Hugh Carr	3,731	Not elected
	SDLP	Eamonn O'Neill	3,582	Elected
	UK Unionist	Frederick Wharton	2,576	Not elected
	UUP	Norman Hanna	1,939	Not elected
	NI Women's Coalition	Anne Carr	1,658	Not elected
	Independent Unionist	George Graham	1,562	Not elected
	Sinn Féin	Garret O'Fachtna	1,520	Not elected
	Alliance	Anne-Marie Cunningham	1,502	Not elected
	Labour Party NI	Malachi Curran	498	Not elected
	Workers' Party	Desmond O'Hagan	130	Not elected
	Independent Labour	Patrick O'Connor	121	Not elected
	Natural Law	Thomas Mullins	33	Not elected

1996 Forum

Successful candidates are shown in bold.^[4]

	Candidate(s)	Votes	Percentage
SDLP	Eddie McGrady Hugh Carr Margaret Ritchie Marietta Farrell John Doris	20,220	43.2
UUP	Dermot Nesbitt Frederick Wharton Gerry Douglas Albert Colmer William Martin	10,379	22.2
Sinn Féin	Mick Murphy Frank McDowell Martin Gough Deidre Clark	6,142	13.1
DUP	William Alexander John Finlay William Burns	5,060	10.8
Alliance	Julian Crozier Michael Healy	1,685	3.6
Labour coalition	Malachi Curran Patrick O'Connor Edna Furey James Masson Michael Kearney	927	2.0
PUP	George Graham James McDonald	497	1.1
NI Women's Coalition	Bronagh Lawson Claire Hannah Lynn Carvill Ursula Leahy	464	1.0
Ulster Democratic	Norma Coulter Denis Paisley	404	0.9
Green (NI)	Maggie Burch Eugene O'Shea Christopher Busby	251	0.6
NI Conservatives	Paul Megarity Michael Henderson	197	0.4
Workers' Party	Marie O'Hagan Eddie O'Hagan	162	0.4
Ulster Independence	Samuel Pollock Stanley Watson James McElrath	130	0.3
Democratic Partnership	William Leneghan Sean O'Baoill	117	0.2
Democratic Left	Veronica McEneaney Jim Ryan	65	0.1
Natural Law	Desmond Garrett William McCarthy	30	0.1
Independent Chambers	George Chambers Doreen Larmour	18	0.0

1982

Assembly Election – 20 October 1982
Party		Candidate	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4&5^†	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8	Count 9	Count 10	Count 11
	SDLP	Frank Feely	7391
	SDLP	Eddie McGrady	7313	7636
	UUP	William Brown	5220	5227	5234	5441	7593
	SDLP	Patrick O'Donoghue	5916	6252	6440	6449	6455	8181
	UUP	Raymond McCullough	5802	5808	5809	5903	6451	6458	6471	6497	9553
	DUP	George Graham	4075	4081	4082	5366	5533	5543	5548	5552	6518	7596
	DUP	Jim Wells	3779	3783	3783	5361	5474	5488	5503	5505	5663	5937
	Alliance	Patrick Forde	3646	3999	4027	4047	4148	4346	4707	4709	4879	5101
	UUP	William Coulter	3787	3794	3795	3828	4490	4497	4508	4663
	Sinn Féin	Cyril Toman	3393	3772	3795	3805	3806
	UUP	William Martin	3562	3567	3568	3798
	DUP	Ethel Smyth	3495	3507	3508
	Workers' Party	Thomas Moore	1676
Electorate=93261, valid=59055, spoiled=2137, quota=7382

^†The fifth count involved the transfer of Feely's surplus of nine votes. After rounding up, the value of his ballot papers was zero so this count produced the same result as the fourth count.

1975

	Candidate	1st Pref	Result
SDLP	Frank Feely	9,730	Elected
Vanguard	Cecil Harvey	8,843	Elected
SDLP	Eddy McGrady	7,257	Elected
SDLP	Patrick O'Donoghue	6,657	Elected
UUP	Herbert Heslip	6,380	Elected
UUP	Peter Brush	6,293	Elected
Unionist Party NI	Brian Faulkner	6,035	Elected
DUP	David Herron	3,752	Not elected
Alliance	Anthony Williamson	1,612	Not elected
Alliance	Denys Rowan-Hamilton	1,509	Not elected
Republican Clubs	Raymond Blaney	1,002	Not elected
Unionist Party NI	Ronald Broadhurst	994	Not elected
Republican Clubs	Gerard O'Hanlon	680	Not elected

1973

	Candidate	1st Pref	Result
UUP	Brian Faulkner	16,287	Elected
SDLP	Eddy McGrady	7,870	Elected
SDLP	Frank Feely	6,857	Elected
Vanguard	Cecil Harvey	5,006	Elected
SDLP	Patrick O'Donoghue	4,322	Elected
DUP	David Herron	4,016	Not elected
UUP	Herbert Heslip	3,838	Elected
Independent	Rory McShane	2,785	Not elected
Independent Nationalist	James O'Reilly	2,000	Not elected
UUP	William Martin	1,996	Not elected
UUP	Ronald Broadhurst	1,515	Elected
Alliance	Anthony Williamson	1,489	Not elected
Alliance	Michael O'Shea	1,475	Not elected
Alliance	Denys Rowan-Hamilton	1,316	Not elected
Independent	Arthur Doran	653	Not elected
Republican Clubs	Noel Collins	648	Not elected
Republican Clubs	Edward O'Hagan	612	Not elected
National Front	William Annett	591	Not elected
Republican Clubs	Samuel Dowling	499	Not elected
Liberal	Berkley Farr	263	Not elected

References

1 2 3 Sinn Fein three to contest elections, Down Recorder, 9 December 2015
1 2 3 McGrath, Rogers and Bradley set for South Down contest, Newry Times, 19 October 2015
↑ http://www.greenpartyni.org/john-hardy/
↑ 1996 Candidates – South Down, Northern Ireland Elections

Northern Ireland Assembly

Assembly	Speaker Assembly Commission Acts Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Parliament Buildings

Committees	Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister Agriculture and Rural Development Culture, Arts and Leisure Education Employment and Learning Enterprise, Trade and Investment Environment Finance and Personnel Health, Social Services and Public Safety Regional Development Social Development

Constituencies	Belfast East Belfast North Belfast South Belfast West East Antrim East Londonderry Fermanagh and South Tyrone Foyle Lagan Valley Mid Ulster Newry and Armagh North Antrim North Down South Antrim South Down Strangford Upper Bann West Tyrone

Parties	Current: Alliance Democratic Unionist Green NI21 Sinn Féin Social Democratic and Labour Traditional Unionist Voice UKIP Ulster Unionist

Elections	1998 2003 2007 2011 2016

Procedure	Cross-community vote

See also	Good Friday Agreement St Andrews Agreement

Coordinates: 54°14′39″N 5°57′03″W / 54.24417°N 5.95083°W / 54.24417; -5.95083

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