The 1993 Local Government Elections in Northern Ireland

Map by Conal Kelly

The Elections

The elections for Northern Ireland's 26 local councils took place on 19 May 1993. This was the sixth set of elections since the local councils were reorganised in 1973. Councillors are elected for a four-year term by Single Transferable Vote from local electoral areas returning five, six or seven councillors. You can look at all the local election results since 1973 here, and the 1997 results here.

These elections are of particular interest because the boundaries on which they were fought were new. Election boundaries for local elections in Northern Ireland are set at roughly ten-year intervals; thus the boundaries used in the first elections in 1973 were again used in 1977 and 1981; they were then revised in time for the 1985 elections, and these boundaries were again used in 1989; the 1993 boundaries were again revised, and these boundaries were used in 1997 and will be used again in the 2001 local elections.

The Results

These were the first elections I really got involved in after rejoining the Alliance Party (I had originally joined when I was at school, but had lapsed while studying at Cambridge). My memory of polling day is of handing out leaflets for Stephen Farry outside a polling station in Bangor, accompanied only by a Kilfedderite on a similar mission. Over the next two days I got to attend the Belfast counts in the City Hall, starting with Upper Falls. Having made myself useful I became Alliance's Director of Elections in September.

The results are interesting in a way because they weren't very different from those of four years before. They gave quite a false impression of a stability having been reached in the Northern Ireland party system; the Conservative challenge failed to materialise, Dem Left and the Workers Party were disappearing off the map separately rather than together, and the Ulster Popular Unionist Party would stay around until Jim Kilfedder died (though nobody expected that to happen quite as soon as it did). But in fact there was a demographic bubble about to surface, and Sinn Féin were the ones who benefited from it from 1996 (perhaps even 1994) onwards.

I have taken my figures from Gordon Lucy's excellent book, occasionally corrected by my personal notes.(See also spreadsheet archive.)

Total valid vote: 629,106; Percentage turnout: 55.0%

Action '93 was a coalition of independent councillors in volatile North Down.

This graph contrasts the first preference votes across the whole of Northern Ireland in the local government elections of 2001, 1997, 1993, 1989, 1985, 1981, 1977 and 1973.

Details of distribution of seats on the 26 District Councils

In the table below, changes for the main parties since 1989 are indicated by + or - signs, so for instance 8-- in the box for the UUP on Antrim council indicates that this was a decrease from 10 councillors at the 1989 elections. I have not done this in the 'Others' column. Also I have not allowed for by-elections or changes of allegiance between 1989 and 1993. However I have indicated those councils where the total number of seats was increased. (NB there was no change in party strengths or total council size in Larne.)

Difficulties with categorisation

• Ards: I count Nancy Orr as an Independent Unionist, the other two count her as independent.
• Ballymena: Gordon Lucy and I count two Independent Unionists; Flackes and Elliott count one Ind U and one Independent.
• Castlereagh: I count Tommy Jeffers as UPUP; Flackes and Elliott lump him in with their Loyalists/Unionists category; Gordon Lucy counts him as Other.
• Dungannon: Flackes and Elliott and I count Gerry Cullen separately for Dem Left; Gordon Lucy includes him in the category of Other.
• Fermanagh: Gordon Lucy and I count McPhillips as an Independent Nationalist; Flackes and Elliott lump him in with the Others.
• Lisburn: I count Gary McMichael as UDP and Ronnie Crawford as Ind U; Gordon Lucy counts Crawford as Ind U but McMichael as Other; Flackes and Elliott have one Loy/U and one Other, not clear which is which.
• Moyle: Gordon Lucy and I count Randal McDonnell as an Independent Nationalist; Flackes and Elliott lump him in with the Others. On reflection I have decided to count Oliver McMullan as an Independent Nationalist also.
• Newtownabbey: Gordon Lucy and I count Mark Langhammer as Labour, Flackes and Elliott count him with Others.
• North Down: I count Valerie Kinghan and Cecil Braniff as UPUP; Alan Chambers and Ian Sinclair as Independent Unionists; Denis Ogborn and J White as Independents; and Austin Lennon as Action '93. Flackes and Elliott count three Loyalists/Unionists and four Others (I suspect they include Chambers in the latter category). Gordon Lucy just puts all seven in the Others category, which is understandable enough.

Parliamentary constituencies

• East Belfast includes parts of Belfast and Castlereagh
• North Belfast includes parts of Belfast and Newtownabbey
• South Belfast includes parts of Belfast and Castlereagh
• West Belfast includes parts of Belfast and Lisburn
• East Antrim includes Carrickfergus, Larne and parts of Newtownabbey
• North Antrim includes Ballymena, Ballymoney and Moyle
• South Antrim includes Antrim and parts of Newtownabbey
• North Down includes North Down and parts of Ards
• South Down includes parts of Banbridge, Down and Newry and Mourne
• Fermanagh and South Tyrone includes Fermanagh and parts of Dungannon
• Foyle is exactly equivalent to Derry
• Lagan Valley includes parts of Lisburn and Banbridge
• East Londonderry includes Coleraine and Limavady
• Mid Ulster includes Cookstown, Magherafelt, and parts of Dungannon
• Newry and Armagh includes Armagh and parts of Newry and Mourne
• Strangford includes parts of Ards, Castlereagh, and Down
• West Tyrone includes Omagh and Strabane
• Upper Bann includes Craigavon and parts of Banbridge

See also:

Other sites based at ARK: ORB (Online Research Bank) | CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) | Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey

Your comments, please! Send an email to me at nicholas.whyte@gmail.com.

Nicholas Whyte, 19 August 1999; last updated 20 June 2003 by Tineke Vaes.