1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election

none April 2022 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election parliamentary no Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention 1975 Members of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention MLAs elected Northern Ireland Forum 1996 All 78 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly 40 seats were needed for a majority 20 October 1982 Ulster Unionist Party James Molyneaux September 1979 Ulster Unionist Party South Antrim 33 seats, 38.1%Previous Combined result for UUP / Vanguard. 26 5Change Compared to 1975 result for UUP / Vanguard. 188,277 29.7% 9.2%Change 160x160px Ian Paisley September 1971 Democratic Unionist Party North Antrim 12 seats, 14.8% 21 9 145,528 23.0% 8.2% 160x160px John Hume November 1979 Social Democratic and Labour Party Londonderry 17 seats, 23.7% 14 3 118,891 18.8% 4.9% Ruairí Ó Brádaigh 2004 (cropped).jpg Ruairí Ó Brádaigh October 1970 Sinn Féin None Did not contest 5 5 64,191 10.1% n/a Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Oliver Napier 1972 Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Belfast East 8 seats, 9.8% 10 2 58,851 9.3% 0.5% 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election.svg 400px Percentage of seats gained by each of the parties. Chief Executive Chief Executive after election None None The 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly elections were held on 20 October 1982 in an attempt to re-establish devolution and power-sharing in Northern Ireland.Hainsworth Paul 1983 The Northern Ireland assembly election of 1982 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/026137948390063X Electoral Studies 2 2 177–183 10.1016/0261-3794(83)90063-X 0261-3794 subscription Although the Northern Ireland Assembly officially lasted until 1986 (and was seen as being a continuation of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention of 1975) it met infrequently. Electoral controversy The electoral system proved to be hugely controversial. While there was general acceptance that the elections should take part using the Single Transferable Vote system, the decision to use the same twelve constituency boundaries used in the 1973 Assembly election rather than the new seventeen constituency boundaries which were later adopted in the 1983 general election was heavily criticised.May 2024 The issue was that the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland's Final Recommendations, which recommended that all future Assembly elections should be held using seventeen constituencies each electing five members, had not yet been approved by Parliament and therefore remained, technically, provisional recommendations.May 2024 The consequence of this was that the elections were held using constituencies which varied greatly in size and electorate with different numbers of seats, ranging from Belfast West with an electorate of 57,726 and four members to South Antrim with an electorate of 131,734 and ten members. In the latter constituency this resulted in huge administrative problems with a record 27 candidates standing necessitating 23 counts over 36 hours with the count not completed until two days after the election.May 2024 Response of political parties On the Unionist side, the Assembly was welcomed, with someMay 2024 hailing it nostalgically as 'a new Stormont'. Consequently, many Nationalists were suspicious of the new body. The Irish Independence Party, which had moderate electoral success in the elections of the previous year, immediately announced that they would boycott the elections and called on other nationalists to follow suit. However Sinn Féin was keen to test its electoral support and both it and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced that they would contest the elections but refuse to take any seats which they won. The smaller People's Democracy, which had won two council seats in an electoral alliance with the Irish Republican Socialist Party the previous year, did likewise. Great interest centred on the performance of Sinn Féin, fighting its first full election and on the inter-Unionist rivalry between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). The former had pulled ahead in the European election of 1979 and the Local Council Elections of 1981 but had suffered a setback in the 1982 by-election which followed the murder of Robert Bradford. Results The results were seen as a triumph for the new electoral strategy of Sinn Féin which gained 5 seats and narrowly missed winning seats in Belfast North and Fermanagh and South Tyrone. The SDLP were disappointed with their 14 seats and one of these was subsequently lost in a by-election to the UUP as Seamus Mallon was disqualified following a successful UUP election petition on the grounds that he was ineligible as he was a member of Seanad Éireann at the time. On the Unionist side the UUP gained a clear lead over the DUP, while the United Ulster Unionist Party failed to make an impact and, as a result, folded two years later. In the centre Alliance Party consolidated with 10 seats including unexpected wins in North and West Belfast. The Workers' Party failed to make a breakthrough despite respectable vote shares in places like North and West Belfast. center PartyVotes%+/-Seats%+/- UUP 188,27729.7 -9.2Change2633.8-5Change Democratic Unionist Party145,52823.0 +8.22127.3+9 Social Democratic and Labour Party118,89118.8 -4.91418.2 -3 Sinn Féin 64,191 10.1 56.5 +5 Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 58,851 9.3 -0.5 1013.0 +2 Workers' Party (Ireland) 17,216 2.7 +0.5 0 0 Ulster Popular Unionist Party 14,916 2.3 -1.2 11.3 0 United Ulster Unionist Party 11,550 1.8   0 0 Independent Unionist 9,567 1.5     1 1.3 +1Independent SDLP 2,052 0.3 -0.3 0 0 Independent (politician) 745 0.1 0 0 Ecology Party (UK) 707 0.1 0 0Newtownabbey Labour 560 0.1 0 0 People's Democracy (Ireland) 442 0.1 0 0 Communist Party of Ireland 415 0.1 0 0 Ulster Liberal Party 65 0.0 0 0Peace 19 0.0 0 0 Total633,120100.0078100.00 Source: Ark Votes summary Popular vote #ddd 500px 290px Ulster Unionist #48A5EE 29.7 DUP #D46A4C 23.0 SDLP #99FF66 18.8 Sinn Féin #008800 10.1 Alliance gold 9.3 Workers' Party (Ireland) #D73D3D 2.7 Ulster Popular Unionist #ffdead 2.2 UUUP #ff8c00 1.8 Ind. Unionist #aadfff 0.9 Other #777777 0.7 Seats summary Parliamentary seats #ddd 500px 290px Ulster Unionist #48A5EE 33.8 DUP #D46A4C 27.3 SDLP #99FF66 18.2 Alliance gold 13.0 Sinn Féin #008800 6.5 Ulster Popular Unionist #ffdead 1.3 Ind. Unionist #aadfff 1.3 Seats by constituency Constituency UUP DUP SDLP SF AP UPUP Ind. U Armagh 3 1 2 1 Belfast East 2 2 2 Belfast North 1 1 1 1 1 Belfast South 3 1 1 Belfast West 1 1 1 1 Fermanagh and South Tyrone 2 1 1 1 Londonderry 2 2 2 1 Mid Ulster 1 2 2 1 North Antrim 2 4 1 1 North Down 3 2 2 1 South Antrim 4 3 1 2 South Down 2 2 3 Total26211451011 See also Members of the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly Notes References Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 1982 Full Counting Details Category:Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) Northern Ireland Assembly election Northern Ireland Assembly election Category:1982 elections in Northern Ireland Category:1982 controversies 1982