Northern Ireland general election, 1969

Northern Ireland general election, 1969

24 February 1969
All 52 seats to the Northern Ireland House of Commons 27 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Terence O'Neill Eddie McAteer Tom Boyd Party UUP Nationalist NI Labour Leader since 25 March 1963 2 June 1964 1958 Leader's seat Bannside Foyle (Defeated) Belfast Pottinger (Defeated) Last election 36 seats (59.1%) 9 seats (8.2%) 2 seats (20.4%) Seats won 36 6 2 Seat change 0 3 0 Popular vote 269,501 42,315 45,113 Percentage 48.2% 7.6% 8.1% Swing 10.9% 0.6% 12.3%
Election results by constituency.
Prime Minister before election Terence O'Neill UUP Elected Prime Minister Terence O'Neill UUP

The Northern Ireland general election, 1969 was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.

Unlike previous elections that produced a large unambiguous majority for the Ulster Unionist Party, this one give more complex results. The Ulster Unionists were divided over a variety of reforms introduced by Prime Minister Terence O'Neill and this division spilled over into the election with official Ulster Unionist candidates standing either in support of or opposition to O'Neill and a number of independent pro O'Neill Unionists standing against opposing candidates. The results left O'Neill without a clear majority for his reforms and he resigned not long afterwards.

This was the first (and only) election since the 1929 election to see changes to the constituencies. The Queen's University of Belfast seat was abolished and four new constituencies were created in the suburbs of Belfast to compensate for population growth there.

Results

Northern Ireland General Election 1969
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	UUP	44	36	4	4	0	69.2	48.2	269,501	-10.9
	Independent Unionist	18	3	3	0	+ 3	5.8	15.6	86,052	+15.6
	NI Labour	16	2	1	1	0	3.8	8.1	45,113	-12.3
	Nationalist	9	6	0	3	- 3	11.5	7.6	42,315	-0.6
	National Democratic	7	0	0	1	- 1		4.6	26,009	-0.1
	People's Democracy	8	0	0	0	0		4.2	23,645	+4.2
	Independent	4	3	3	1	+ 2	5.8	3.9	21,977	+3.9
	Protestant Unionist	5	0	0	0	0		3.8	20,991	+3.8
	Republican Labour	5	2	1	1	0	3.8	2.4	13,115	+1.4
	Liberal	2	0	0	1	- 1		1.3	7,337	-2.6
	People's Progressive	1	0	0	0	0		0.5	2,992	+0.5

Electorate: 912,087 (778,031 in contested seats); Turnout: 71.9% (559,087).

Votes summary

Popular vote
Pro-O'Neill Unionist			27.6%
Anti-O'Neill Unionist			20.6%
Ind. Pro-O'Neill Unionist			12.9%
Labour			8.07%
Nationalist			7.57%
National Democratic			4.65%
Peoples' Democracy			4.23%
Independent			3.93%
Protestant Unionist			3.75%
Independent Unionist			2.49%
Republican Labour			2.35%
Ulster Liberal			1.31%
People's Progressive			0.54%
Total Ulster Unionist			48.2%
Total Pro-O'Neill Unionist			40.5%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Pro-O'Neill Unionist			44.23%
Anti-O'Neill Unionist			25%
Ind. Pro-O'Neill Unionist			5.77%
Labour			3.85%
Nationalist			11.54%
Independent			5.77%
Republican Labour			3.85%
Total Ulster Unionist			69.23%
Total Pro-O'Neill Unionist			50%

See also

• MPs elected in the Northern Ireland general election, 1969

References

• Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results