1929 Northern Ireland general election

1929 Northern Ireland general election

←  1925 22 May 1929 1933  →
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All 52 seats to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 27 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   NIL Leader James Craig Joe Devlin Samuel Kyle Party UUP Nationalist NI Labour Leader since 7 June 1921 1918 1925 Leader's seat North Down Belfast Central Belfast Oldpark (defeated) Last election 32 seat, 55.0% 10 seats, 23.8% 3 seats, 4.7% Seats won 37 [a] 11 [b] 1 Seat change 5 1 2 Popular vote 148,579 [c] 34,069 [c] 23,334 [c] Percentage 50.8% 11.7% 8.0% Swing 4.2% 9.5% 3.3%
Election results by constituency
Prime Minister before election James Craig UUP Prime Minister after election James Craig UUP

The 1929 Northern Ireland general election was held on 22 May 1929. Like all previous elections to the Parliament of Northern Ireland, it produced a large majority for the Ulster Unionist Party. It was the first held after the abolition of proportional representation and the redrawing of electoral boundaries to create single-seat constituencies. Though it had been argued this was done with the intent of gerrymandering, this has been considered unlikely as the Unionists already had a solid majority at the parliamentary level. ^[1] However, the opposite was more accurate at local level. ^[2] As with the rest of the United Kingdom, this has made it more difficult for independent and minor party candidates like the Northern Ireland Labour Party to win seats, as was the intent of the abolition of proportional representation was for the UUP to control the Unionist vote. ^[2]

22 MPs (42%), mostly Ulster Unionists, were elected unopposed without any votes being cast. This began a trend which would continue for decades - until 1969, at least 20 MPs in every Northern Ireland general election would be elected unopposed. ^[2]

Results

↓

37	11	3	1
UUP	Nationalist	IU	NILP

1929 Northern Ireland general election
Party		Candidates						Votes
		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	UUP	43	37 [a]	N/A	N/A	+5	71.2	50.8	148,579	-4.2
	Ind. Unionist	10	3	N/A	N/A	-1	5.8	14.3	41,778	+5.3
	Nationalist	11	11 [b]	N/A	N/A	+1	21.2	11.7	34,069	-9.5
	NI Labour	5	1	N/A	N/A	-2	1.9	8.0	23,334	+3.3
	Ulster Liberal	5	0	N/A	N/A	-1	—	6.2	18,208	+4.9
	Local Option	3	0	N/A	N/A	0	—	3.3	9,776	N/A
	Town Tenants' Association	2	0	N/A	N/A	0	—	2.4	6,901	+1.5
	Ind. Nationalist	1	0	N/A	N/A	0	—	1.3	3,694	N/A
	Independent	1	0	N/A	N/A	0	—	1.2	3,437	N/A
	Independent Labour	2	0	N/A	N/A	0	—	0.8	2,442	N/A

Electorate: 775,307 (432,439 in contested seats); Turnout: 67.6% (292,218). Ulster Liberal Party result is compared to Unbought Tenants' Association in 1925.

Votes summary

Popular vote Ulster Unionist   50.85% Independent Unionist   14.30% Nationalist Party   11.66% Labour   7.99% Ulster Liberal   6.23% Independent   3.28% Other   5.71%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Ulster Unionist   71.15% Nationalist Party   21.15% Independent Unionist   5.77% Labour   1.92%

Contested seats

Only 30 of the 52 seats (58%) were actually contested.

1929 Northern Ireland general election (contested seats)
Party		Popular vote		Candidates
		Votes	%	Stood	Elected	%
	Ulster Unionist	148,579	50.8	27	21	70.0
	Ind. Unionist	41,778	14.3	10	3	10.0
	Nationalist	34,069	11.7	5	5	16.7
	Labour	23,334	8.0	5	1	3.3
	Liberal	18,208	6.2	5	0	—
	Local Option	9,776	3.3	3	0	—
	Town Tenants	6,901	2.4	2	0	—
	Ind. Nationalist	3,694	1.3	1	0	—
	Independent	3,437	1.2	1	0	—
	Ind. Labour	2,442	0.8	2	0	—
Total		292,218	67.6%	61	30	—

Uncontested seats

In 22 of the 52 seats (42%), only one candidate stood and they were elected unopposed without any votes cast. The vast majority of the MPs elected without a contest were Ulster Unionists. ^[2]

1929 Northern Ireland general election (uncontested seats)
Party		Popular vote		Candidates
		Votes	%	Stood	Elected	%
	Ulster Unionist	Unopposed		16	16	72.7
	Nationalist	Unopposed		6	6	27.3
Total				22	22	100

Old Map

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Notes

1. Includes 16 members elected unopposed.
2. Includes 6 members elected unopposed.
3. Voting only took place in 30 of 52 seats.
   The other 22 MPs were unopposed.

References

1. Pringle, Dennis G. (1980). "Electoral Systems and Political Manipulation: A Case Study of Northern Ireland in the 1920s" (PDF). Economic and Social Review. 11 (3): 188. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
2. "Northern Ireland House of Commons, 1921-1972". www.ark.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 April 2025.

• Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results Archived 16 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine