Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2016

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For other elections that took place on this day, see United Kingdom elections, 2016.
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2016
NI flax V1.png
← 2011 5 May 2016 2021 →
All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
55 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
  Arlene Foster Gerry Adams Mike Nesbitt
Leader Arlene Foster Gerry Adams Mike Nesbitt
Party DUP Sinn Féin UUP
Leader since 17 December 2015 13 November 1983 31 March 2012
Leader's seat Fermanagh & South Tyrone Did not contest Strangford
Last election 38 seats, 30% 29 seats, 26.9% 16 seats, 13.2%
Seats won 38 28 16
Seat change Steady Decrease 1 Steady
Popular vote 202,567 166,785 87,302
Percentage 29.2% 24% 12.6%
Swing Decrease 0.8% Decrease 2.9% Decrease 0.6%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Colum Eastwood David Ford Steven Agnew
Leader Colum Eastwood David Ford Steven Agnew
Party SDLP Alliance Green (NI)
Leader since 14 November 2015 6 October 2001 10 January 2011
Leader's seat Foyle South Antrim North Down
Last election 14 seats, 14.2% 8 seats, 7.7% 1 seat, 0.9%
Seats won 12 8 2
Seat change Decrease 2 Steady Increase 1
Popular vote 83,364 48,447 18,718
Percentage 12% 7.0% 2.7%
Swing Decrease 2.2% Decrease 0.7% Increase 1.8%
  Seventh party Eighth party
  No image.svg Jim Allister
Leader Eamonn McCann [1] Jim Allister
Party People Before Profit TUV
Leader since N/A 7 December 2007
Leader's seat Foyle North Antrim
Last election 0 seats, 0.8% 1 seat, 2.4%
Seats won 2 1
Seat change Increase 2 Steady
Popular vote 13,761 23,776
Percentage 2.0% 3.4%
Swing Increase 1.2% Increase 1%
450px
Number of seats gained by each of the parties.
First Minister and deputy First Minister before election

Arlene Foster (DUP) &
Martin McGuinness (SF)

 First Minister and deputy First Minister
after election

Arlene Foster (DUP) &
Martin McGuinness (SF)

The 2016 election to the Northern Ireland Assembly was held on 5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election (representing an increase of 5.9% compared to the previous Assembly election).[2] Turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 54.9%, a decline of less than one percentage point from the previous Assembly election but down 15 percentage points from the first election to the Assembly held in 1998.[3]

As in the 2007 and 2011 elections, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin won the most seats, with the DUP winning 38 and Sinn Féin winning 28 of the available 108 seats. The Ulster Unionist Party won 16 seats, the Social Democratic and Labour Party 12 and the Alliance 8, while two seats were won by the Green Party and People Before Profit. The Traditional Unionist Voice and an independent candidate each won one seat.

Change of date

Under the Northern Ireland Act 1998, elections to the Assembly were originally for a four-year term; thus there would have been an election due in May 2015, four years after the 2011 election. Following the introduction of the UK Fixed Term Parliaments Act, this date would have clashed with the 2015 UK General Election.[4] The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections were postponed for a year to 2016 to avoid this clash.[5]

In May 2013, Theresa Villiers, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced the next Assembly election would be postponed to May 2016, and would be held at fixed intervals of five years thereafter.[6] Section 7 of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 specifies that elections will be held on the first Thursday in May on the fifth (rather than fourth, as previously) calendar year following that in which its predecessor was elected.[7]

End of dual mandate

The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 also ends the practice of dual mandate, prohibiting someone being elected to the assembly who is also a member of the House of Commons or Dáil Éireann.[7] At the time the Act was passed, there were three such dual-members: the DUP's Sammy Wilson (MP for East Antrim and MLA for East Antrim) and Gregory Campbell (MP for East Londonderry and MLA for East Londonderry) and the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell (MP for Belfast South and MLA for Belfast South).[8] Wilson and McDonnell resigned from the Assembly after being re-elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 election. Campbell, who was also re-elected as an MP, is retiring from the Assembly at this election.[9]

Earlier dissolution

There are several circumstances in which the Assembly could be dissolved before the date scheduled by virtue of section 31(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

Dissolution motion

Under section 32 of the 1998 Act, the Assembly can be dissolved if a resolution to such an effect is passed by the Assembly, with support of 72 or more members.[citation needed]

Failure to elect the First or deputy First Ministers

The Act provides that if the Assembly fails to elect either the First Minister or deputy First Minister within six weeks, an election is called. Since the enactment of the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006, the First Minister has been nominated by the largest party overall, and the deputy First Minister has been nominated by the single largest party in the largest community designation ("Nationalist", "Unionist" or "Other") to which the largest party overall does not belong.[citation needed]

New Executive Departments

It is proposed[10] that after the May 2016 Election there be a reduction in the number of ministries and departments. The amendments are:

  • The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is dissolved
  • The Department of the Environment is dissolved
  • The Department for Employment and Learning is dissolved

Candidates

Nominations opened on 30 March 2016 for the assembly election.[11] A full list of candidates is available.[12][13]

Parties standing in more than one constituency were:

Various independents and smaller parties also stood.

Members not seeking re-election

Alliance

DUP

NI21

SDLP

Sinn Féin

UUP

UKIP

Contesting Parties

Party Leader Candi-
dates		 Seats
won		 Change
from
2011		 First
Preference
votes		 First
Pref. %		 Change
from
2011
 Council
1st pref.
%		 Seats on
NI Execu-
tive		 Change
from
2015
DUP Arlene Foster 44 38 0 202,567 29.2% -0.8% 5 +1
Sinn Féin Gerry Adams 39 28 -1 166,785 24.0% -2.9% 4 +1
UUP Mike Nesbitt 33 16 0 87,302 12.6% -0.6% 0 -1
SDLP Colum Eastwood 24 12 -2 83,364 12.0% -2.2% 0 -1
Alliance David Ford 23 8 0 48,447 7.0% -0.7% 0 -1
TUV Jim Allister 15 1 0 23,776 3.4% +1.0% - -
Green (NI) Steven Agnew 18 2 +1 18,718 2.7% +1.8% - -
People Before Profit Eamonn McCann 3 2 +2 13,761 2.0% +1.2% - -
UKIP Nigel Farage 13 - 10,109 1.5% +0.8%
PUP Billy Hutchinson 6 - 5,955 0.9% +0.3%
NI Conservatives David Cameron 12 - 2,554 0.4% N/A
CISTA Paul Birch 4 - 2,510 0.4% N/A
Labour Alternative Owen McCracken 3 - 1,939 0.3% N/A
NI Labour Kathryn Johnston 8 - 1,577 0.2% N/A
Workers' Party John Lowry 4 - 1,565 0.2% ±0.0
South Belfast Unionists William Dickson 1 - 351 0.0% N/A
Animal Welfare Vanessa Hudson 1 - 224 0.0% N/A
Democracy First Frazer McCammond 1 - 124 0.0% N/A
Northern Ireland First Geoff Dowey 1 - 32 0.0% N/A
Independents N/A 23 1 0 22,650 3.3% +0.9% 1 +1
TOTAL 108   703,744 10 -
Notes:
Results from Raymond Russell, "Election Report: Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 5 May 2016", Northern Ireland Assembly
  • Total valid poll 703,744. Electorate: 1,281,595; turnout: 54.9%.

Results

Distribution of seats by constituency

Party affiliation of the six Assembly members returned by each constituency. The first column indicates the party of the Member of the House of Commons (MP) returned by the corresponding parliamentary constituency in the general election of 7 May 2010 (under the "first past the post" method).

(The constituencies are arranged here in rough geographical order around Lough Neagh from Antrim to Londonderry. To see them in alphabetical order, click the small square icon after "Constituency"; to restore this geographical order, refresh or reload the page.)

#D46A4CDUP #D46A4CDUP #48A5EEUUP #D46A4CDUP #326760SF #2AA82CSDLP #D46A4CDUP #DCDCDCInd. #D46A4CDUP #D46A4CDUP #D46A4CDUP #2AA82CSDLP #326760SF #48A5EEUUP #326760SF #326760SF #2AA82CSDLP #D46A4CDUP

2015 MP Constituency Candi-
dates
 Total
seats
 PBP
 Green
 Sinn
Féin
 SDLP
 Alli-
ance
 UUP
 DUP
 TUV
 Ind.
 Seat
gained
by		 Seat
formerly
held by
North Antrim - 6 - - 1 - - 1 3 1 - - -
East Antrim - 6 - - 1 - 1 1 3 - - - -
South Antrim - 6 - - 1 - 1 1 3 - - - -
Belfast North - 6 - - 2 1 - - 3 - - - -
Belfast West - 6 1 - 4 1 - - - - - PBP SF
Belfast South - 6 - 1 1 1 1 - 2 - - Green SDLP
                          DUP UUP
Belfast East - 6 - - - - 2 1 3 - - - -
North Down - 6 - 1 - - 1 1 3 - - - -
Strangford - 6 - - - - 1 2 3 - - - -
Lagan Valley - 6 - - - - 1 2 3 - - UUP DUP
Upper Bann - 6 - - 2 - - 2 2 - - SF SDLP
South Down - 6 - - 2 2 - 1 1 - - - -
Newry and Armagh - 6 - - 3 1 - 1 1 - - - -
Fermanagh & South Tyrone - 6 - - 2 1 - 1 2 - - SDLP SF
West Tyrone - 6 - - 3 1 - 1 1 - - - -
Mid Ulster - 6 - - 3 1 - 1 1 - - - -
Foyle - 6 1 - 2 2 - - 1 - - PBP SDLP
East Londonderry - 6 - - 1 1 - - 3 - 1 - -
18 Total - 108 2 2 28 12 8 16 38 1 1
  Change since dissolution - - +2 +1 –1 –2 - +3 - - –1 –1 –1
  Assembly at dissolution - 108 - 1 29 14 8 13 38 1 2 1 UKIP 1 NI21
  Change during Assembly term - - - - - - - –3 - - +1 +1 +1
  Elected on 5 May 2011 218 108 - 1 29 14 8 16 38 1 1 -
  Elected on 7 March 2007 256 108 - 1 28 16 7 18 36 - 1 1 Prog. U.
  Elected on 23 November 2003 108 - - 24 18 6 27 30 - 1 1 Prog. U. 1 UKUP
  Elected on 25 June 1998 108 - - 18 24 6 28 20 - 4 2 Prog. U. 5 UKUP, 2 NIWC

Share of first-preference votes

Percentage of each constituency's first-preference votes. Three highest percentages in each constituency shaded; absolute majorities underlined. The constituencies are arranged in the geographic order described for the table above; click the icon next to "Constituency" to see them in alphabetical order.

  • [The totals given here are the sum of all valid ballots cast in each constituency, and the percentages are based on such totals. The turnout percentages in the last column, however, are based upon all ballots cast, which also include anything from twenty to a thousand invalid ballots in each constituency. The total valid ballots' percentage of the eligible electorate can correspondingly differ by 0.1% to 2% from the turnout percentage.]
2015
MP
 MP's %
of 2015
vote		 Constituency PBP
 Green
 Sinn
Féin
 SDLP
 Alli-
ance
 UUP
 DUP
 TUV
 Ind.
 Others.
 Total
votes
 Eligible
elector-
ate		 Turn-
out
 %
DUP 43.2% North Antrim 1.3 12.9 7.5 3.2 10.7 43.1 17.9 3.3 - - 52.3%
DUP 36.1% East Antrim 2.1 8.1 3.8 14.6 20.2 36.1 5.1 9.9 - - 50.5%
UUP 32.7% South Antrim 1.7 13.2 9.6 8.9 22.2 37.5 3.8 1.4 1.7 - - 50.4%
DUP 47.0% Belfast North 3.5 2.2 26.5 10.6 7.0 5.4 35.0 1.8 0.9 7.1 - - 51.6%
SF 54.2% Belfast West 22.9 0.9 54.5 7.3 0.8 1.8 10.4 1.5 - - 56.7%
SDLP 24.5% Belfast South 9.6 14.2 20.0 16.4 6.7 22.0 1.3 1.3 8.5 - - 53.6%
DUP 49.3% Belfast East 5.9 2.5 0.4 28.7 11.1 36.7 2.4 3.0 9.4 - - 56.5%
Ind. 49.2% North Down 12.7 1.0 1.3 16.8 15.5 41.7 1.9 4.4 4.7 - - 49.0%
DUP 44.4% Strangford 2.8 2.0 8.3 10.7 19.5 43.0 4.3 5.9 3.4 - - 49.7%
DUP 47.9% Lagan Valley 2.9 2.7 7.5 9.5 21.2 47.2 3.3 2.1 3.6 - - 52.7%
DUP 32.7% Upper Bann 1.1 24.9 9.5 3.1 21.6 31.1 2.6 0.1 6.0 - - 53.6%
SDLP 42.3% South Down 2.0 31.1 31.4 5.4 8.5 12.3 6.6 2.8 - - 53.1%
SF 41.1% Newry & Armagh 0.7 40.9 18.2 1.0 14.1 16.7 5.5 2.9 - - 58.4%
UUP 46.4% Fermanagh & S. Tyrone 1.9 40.0 8.5 1.1 12.8 32.7 2.5 0.6 - - 63.5%
SF 43.5% West Tyrone 1.2 42.0 11.0 1.3 11.4 22.0 8.9 2.1 - - 59.1%
SF 48.7% Mid Ulster 0.9 46.7 15.2 1.2 11.9 18.1 4.6 1.4 - - 57.9%
SDLP 47.9% Foyle 10.5 0.4 28.5 30.0 0.6 3.6 11.9 13.9 0.8 - - 55.3%
DUP 42.2% East Londonderry 1.3 21.8 9.5 3.7 8.3 36.8 3.5 9.7 5.4 - - 50.1%
18 Northern Ireland 2.0 2.7 24.0 12.0 7.0 12.6 29.2 3.4 3.9 3.3 703,744 1,281,595 54.9%
Change since 2011 +1.2 +1.8 –2.9 –2.2 –0.7 –0.6 –0.8 +1.0 +1.7 +1.0 +42,008 +71,586 –0.7%
Election of May 2011 0.9 26.9 14.2 7.7 13.2 30.0 2.5 2.2 2.3 661,736 1,210,009 55.6%
Election of March 2007 1.7 26.2 15.2 5.2 14.9 30.1 - 3.8 2.8 690,313 1,107,904 62.9%
Election of Nov. 2003 0.4 23.5 17.0 3.7 22.7 25.7 - 5.6 2.8 692,026 1,097,526 63.1%
Election of June 1998 0.1 17.6 22.0 6.5 21.3 18.1 - 10.9 3.5 823,565 1,178,556 69.9%

Votes cast for minor parties and independents

Seats changing hands

Incumbents defeated

Sinn Féin

Democratic Unionist Party

Ulster Unionist Party

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Independent

Opinion Polling

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size DUP SF SDLP UUP Alliance TUV Green Others
30 Mar – 1 Apr 2016 Lucid Talk/Belfast Telegraph 970 26.5% 25.8% 11.9% 15.6% 8.1% 4.1% 2.6% 5.4%
8–12 Feb 2016 Lucid Talk/Belfast Telegraph 2,886 26.6% 24.6% 11.2% 14.5% 8.2% 3.5% 2.6% 8.8%
19–21 Oct 2015 Lucid Talk/Belfast Telegraph 2,517 25.8% 25.4% 10.8% 15.0% 7.6% 3.2% 2.4% 9.8%
7 May 2015 General Election Results 718,512 25.7% 24.5% 13.9% 16.0% 8.6% 2.3% 1.0% 8.0%
22 May 2014 2014 Local Election Results 627,777 23.1% 24.1% 13.6% 16.2% 6.7% 4.5% 0.9% 10.9%
22 May 2014 2014 European Election Results 626,125 20.9% 25.5% 13.0% 13.3% 7.1% 12.1% 1.7% 6.3%
Sep 2013 Lucid Talk/Belfast Telegraph N/A 29.3% 26.1% 13.8% 10.8% 10.2% 2.2% 1.3% 6.3%
Jan 2013 IPSOS-MORI/BBC 1,046 24% 23% 19% 13% 10% — — 11%
5 May 2011 Assembly Election Results 661,736 29.3% 26.3% 13.9% 12.9% 7.7% 2.4% 0.9% 6.6%

Footnotes

References

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