Northern Ireland referendum 2011

On 5 May 2011, Northern Ireland voted for the Assembly, for local councils, and also as part of the Uniter Kingdom's nationwide referendum on the electoral system.

The question on the ballot paper was:
At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?

Result:
Turnout 55.8%
Yes 289,088 (43.7%)
No 372,706 (56.3%)
(Invalid 7,062)

This was both the highest turnout, and the highest "Yes" vote, of any region in the United Kingdom. The overall turnout was 42.2%, and the vote was lost by 13,013,123 votes (67.9%) to 6,152,607 (32.1%).

Frustratingly, the detail of the results has been published in two completely different geographical configurations. The turnout was published for each parliamentary copnstituency:

Constituency Eligible Votes Turnout
East Belfast 60,508 32,640 (53.9%)
North Belfast 67,370 34,001 (50.5%)
South Belfast 61,118 32,414 (53.0%)
West Belfast 61,267 35,311 (57.6%)
East Antrim 61,317 29,280 (47.8%)
North Antrim 73,977 40,840 (55.2%)
South Antrim 61,905 30,094 (48.6%)
North Down 61,823 28,398 (45.9%)
South Down 72,694 42,324 (58.2%)
Fermanagh and South Tyrone 69,492 48,475 (69.8%)
Foyle 68,371 39,480 (57.7%)
Lagan Valley 68,808 35,660 (51.8%)
East Londonderry 64,752 35,011 (54.1%)
Mid Ulster 65,816 43,189 (65.6%)
Newry and Armagh 76,213 47,205 (61.9%)
Strangford 64,689 31,691 (49.0%)
West Tyrone 62,482 40,139 (64.2%)
Upper Bann 76,364 42,718 (55.9%)
TOTAL 1,198,966 668,870 (55.8%)

The relative votes for "Yes" and No", meanwhile, were given accoring to the count centres, which more or less combine parliamentary constituencies.

Count centre Turnout Invalid Yes No
Ballymena (North Antrim and Mid Ulster)
 84,036 1,379 (1.6%) 34,739 (42.0%) 47,918 (58.0%)
Banbridge 1 (South Down and Newry & Armagh)
 89,908 962 (1.1%) 40,704 (45.8%) 48,242 (54.2%)
Banbridge 2 (Upper Bann and Lagan Valley)
 77,999 577 (0.7%) 31,284 (40.4%) 46,138 (59.6%)
Belfast (South and West Belfast)
 67,734 712 (1.1%) 40,000 (59.7%) 27,022 (40.3%)
Londonderry (Foyle and East Londonderry)
 73,601 902 (1.2%) 36,366 (50.0%) 36,320 (50.0%)
Newtownabbey (North Belfast, East and South Antrim) 95,845 654 (0.7%) 37,528 (39.4%) 57,663 (60.6%)
Newtownards (East Belfast, North Down and Strangford) 91,132 506 (0.6%) 27,729 (30.6%) 62,897 (69.4%)
Omagh (Fermanagh & South Tyrone and West Tyrone) 88,614 1,370 (1.5%) 40,738 (46.7%) 46,506 (53.3%)
TOTAL 668,869 7,062 (1.1%) 289,088 (43.7%) 372,706 (56.3%)

The Belfast and (by a hairs breadth) Londonderry counting centres recorded majorities for "Yes"; the others all recorded majorities for "No".

I am grateful to Richard Bullick for sorting our which constituencies were counted in each counting centre.

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, 25 May 2017.


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Disclaimer:© Nicholas Whyte 1998-2004 Last Updated on Sunday, 06-Mar-2011 19:41