1973 Northern Ireland local elections

1973 Northern Ireland local elections

30 May 1973 1977  →
All seats to 26 local authorities
First party Second party   SDLP Leader Brian Faulkner Gerry Fitt Party UUP SDLP Seats won 194 82 Popular vote 255,187 92,600 Percentage 37.4% 13.4%   Third party Fourth party   APNI Leader Oliver Napier Ian Paisley Party Alliance DUP Seats won 63 21 Popular vote 94,474 28,811 Percentage 13.7% 4.1%
Council control Party with the most seats

Local government in Northern Ireland was reorganised in 1973 by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 and the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. The county councils, county borough and municipal borough corporations and urban and rural district councils were replaced by twenty-six local government districts.

Elections took place for all the seats on the district councils on 30 May 1973. Elections were by proportional representation, using the single transferable vote system. The district councils came into their powers on 1 October. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Results

Overall

Party [5]		Councillors		Votes
		Total	+/-	% share	Total
	UUP	194	N/A	37.4	255,187
	Alliance	63	N/A	13.7	94,474
	SDLP	82	N/A	13.4	92,600
	Independent	52	N/A	7.0	48,947
	Ind. Unionist	26	N/A	4.4	31,866
	United Loyalist	20	N/A	4.2	28,906
	DUP	21	N/A	4.1	28,811
	Republican Clubs	8	N/A	3.0	20,680
	NI Labour	4	N/A	2.5	17,422
	Independent Loyalist	16	N/A	1.4	17,360
	Vanguard	10	N/A	1.6	13,305
	Unity	6	N/A	1.5	10,281
	Loyalist Coalition	3	N/A	1.0	7,495
	Nationalist	4	N/A	0.5	3,784
	Independent Community	3	N/A	0.4	3,036
	Republican Labour	0	N/A	0.4	2,594
	Ind. Republican	3	N/A	0.2	1,911
	Ulster Liberal	0	N/A	0.1	704
	Independent Ratepayer	1	N/A	0.1	841
	Independent Radical	1	N/A	0.1	533
	Communist	0	N/A	0.1	363
	Irish Labour	0	N/A	0.0	290
	Ind. Nationalist	0	N/A	0.0	147
	Independent Labour	0	N/A	0.0	91
Total		462		100.0%	681,628

Results by council

Council	Control		1st party 1973		2nd party 1973		Councillors
Antrim		UUP		UUP (8)		Alliance (2)	15
Belfast City		No overall control		UUP (25)		Alliance (8)	51
Ards		UUP		UUP (11)		Alliance (2)	17
Armagh		No overall control		UUP (10)		SDLP (4)	20
Ballymena		No overall control
Ballymoney		No overall control
Banbridge		UUP
Carrickfergus		No overall control
Castlereagh		No overall control
Coleraine		UUP
Cookstown		No overall control
Craigavon		No overall control
Down		No overall control
Dungannon		UUP
Fermanagh		No overall control
Larne		Loyalist		Loyalist (8)		Alliance (3)	15
Limavady		United Unionist		United Unionist (8)		SDLP (4)	15
Lisburn		UUP		UUP (14)		Alliance (3)	23
Londonderry		No overall control		SDLP (10)		United Loyalist (9)	27
Magherafelt		No overall control
Moyle		No overall control
Newry and Mourne		No overall control
Newtownabbey		No overall control
North Down		No overall control
Omagh		No overall control
Strabane		No overall control
All councils				UUP (194)		SDLP (82)	517

References

1. Local Government Elections 1973 (Ark Social & Political Archive)
2. Big Roman Catholic turnout in poll despite threats, The Times, 31 May 1973
3. Party accused over Ulster poll, The Times, 31 May 1973
4. Unionist supporters elect many hard-line men in Ulster local government poll, The Times, 2 June 1973
5. Local Government Elections 1973, Northern Ireland Elections