Northern Ireland local elections, 2014

Northern Ireland local elections, 2014

22 May 2014

All 462 council seats   First party Second party Third party   Leader Peter Robinson Gerry Adams Mike Nesbitt Party DUP Sinn Féin UUP Seats won 130 105 88 Seat change 15 10 11 Popular vote 144,928 151,137 101,385 Percentage 23.1% 24.1% 16.1% Swing 4.1% 0.7% 0.9%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Alasdair McDonnell David Ford Jim Allister Party SDLP Alliance TUV Seats won 66 32 13 Seat change 1 2 10 Popular vote 85,237 41,769 28,310 Percentage 13.6% 6.7% 4.5% Swing 1.4% 0.7% 2.5%

Colours denote which party won the most seats in each council

Local elections were held in Northern Ireland on Thursday 22 May 2014, contesting 462 seats in all, as part of the wider local elections across the United Kingdom. The election took place on the same day as the European Parliament election.^[1]

Voter eligibility

All voters were required to present one piece of photographic ID in order to cast a vote at the polling station. Accepted forms of ID were an electoral identity card, an EEA photographic driving licence, a European Union member-state passport, a Translink 60+ SmartPass, a Translink Senior SmartPass, a Translink Blind Person's SmartPass or a Translink War Disabled SmartPass.^[2] Voters lacking an accepted type of photographic ID had until 9 May 2014 to apply for an electoral identity card from the Electoral Office.^[3]

Background

The elections represented a milestone in the reform of local government in Northern Ireland, as councillors were elected to 11 new councils.^[4] These operated in shadow form until Wednesday 1 April 2015, with the current 26 councils existing in parallel until then.^[1]

The 11 new councils, with links to the official lists of candidates standing ("statements of persons nominated"),^[5] are:

1. Belfast City Council (Candidates)
2. North Down and Ards District Council (Candidates)
3. Antrim and Newtownabbey District Council (Candidates)
4. Lisburn and Castlereagh District Council (Candidates)
5. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (Candidates)
6. Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council (Candidates)
7. Mid and East Antrim District Council (Candidates)
8. Causeway Coast and Glens District Council (Candidates)
9. Mid-Ulster District Council (Candidates)
10. Derry and Strabane District Council (Candidates)
11. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (Candidates)

The local government reorganisation and electoral administration is founded by the Local Government Bill.^[6] Nominations of election candidates closed on 29 April 2014.^[7]

The 2014 election heralds 26 councils being reduced to 11 in April 2015.

The 26 old local government districts

The 11 new local government districts

Results

Because these elections were contested with new electoral boundaries, the results are not directly comparable with those of the last election. However, psephologist Nicholas Whyte has calculated a baseline by which to judge the parties' relative performance.^[8] This baseline is used in the following tables.

Results by council

Belfast

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Results by party

Party		Councillors			% of councillors			First preference votes			% of FP votes
		2011 (notional)[9]	2014	+/-	2011 (notional)	2014	+/-	2011[23]	2014[24]	+/-	2011	2014	+/-
	DUP	145	130	15	31.4%	28.1%	3.3%	179,436	144,928		27.2%	23.1%	4.1%
	Sinn Féin	115	105	10	24.9%	22.7%	2.2%	163,712	151,137		24.8%	24.1%	0.7%
	UUP	77	88	11	16.7%	19.0%	2.3%	100,643	101,385		15.2%	16.1%	0.9%
	SDLP	67	66	1	14.5%	14.2%	0.3%	99,325	85,237		15.0%	13.6%	1.4%
	Alliance	34	32	2	7.4%	6.9%	0.5%	48,859	41,769		7.4%	6.7%	0.7%
	TUV	3	13	10	0.6%	2.8%	2.2%	13,079	28,310		2.0%	4.5%	2.5%
	PUP	1	4	3	0.2%	0.8%	0.6%	3,858	12,753		0.6%	2.0%	1.4%
	Green (NI)	1	4	3	0.2%	0.8%	0.6%	6,317	5,515		1.0%	0.8%	0.2%
	UKIP	1	3	2	0.2%	0.6%	0.4%	2,550	9,311		0.4%	1.4%	1.0%
	NI21	0	1	1	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0	11,495		0.0%	1.8%	1.8%
	People Before Profit	0	1	1	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	1,721	1,923		0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
	NI Conservatives	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		1,321	2,527		0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
	Éirígí	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		2,062	1,756		0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
	Workers' Party	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		760	985		0.1	0.2%	0.1%
	Fermanagh Against Fracking	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		0	555		0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
	Republican Network for Unity	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		0	502		0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
	Community Partnership	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		800	388		0.1	0.1%	0.0%
	Socialist Party	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		682	272		0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
	BNP	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		491	174		0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
	Democracy First	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		0	173		0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
	Others	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		2,142	0		0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
	Independent	18	15	3	3.9%	3.2%	0.7%	32,151	26,682		4.9%	4.2%	0.7%
	Total	462	462		100%	100%		660,631	627,777		100%	100%

References

(2013 ←)   United Kingdom local elections, 2014   (→ 2015)
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	Blackburn with Darwen Bristol Derby Halton Hartlepool Kingston upon Hull Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire Peterborough Plymouth Portsmouth Reading Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea Swindon Thurrock Warrington Wokingham
District councils	Adur Amber Valley Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Brentwood Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Carlisle Castle Point Cheltenham Cherwell Chorley Colchester Craven Crawley Daventry Eastleigh Elmbridge Epping Forest Exeter Fareham Gloucester Gosport Great Yarmouth Harlow Harrogate Hart Hastings Havant Hertsmere Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Ipswich Lincoln Maidstone Mole Valley Newcastle-under-Lyme North Hertfordshire Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oxford Pendle Preston Purbeck Redditch Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor South Cambridgeshire South Lakeland St Albans Stevenage Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Tamworth Tandridge Three Rivers Tunbridge Wells Watford Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Oxfordshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Worcester Worthing Wyre Forest
Northern Irish councils	Antrim and Newtownabbey Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry and Strabane Fermanagh and Omagh Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid-Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down North Down and Ards
Mayoral elections	Hackney Lewisham Newham Tower Hamlets Watford
PCC elections	South Yorkshire West Midlands
See also European Parliament election