1977 Cookstown District Council election

Main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1977

1977 Cookstown District Council election

←  1973 18 May 1977 (1977-05-18) 1981  →
All 15 seats to Cookstown District Council 8 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party SDLP Ulster Unionist UUUP Seats won 5 4 3 Seat change 2 4 3   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party DUP Independent Nationalist Independent Republican Seats won 1 1 1 Seat change 1 1 1   Seventh party Eighth party   Party Republican Clubs Loyalist Coalition Seats won 0 0 Seat change 1 1

Elections to Cookstown District Council were held on 18 May 1977 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 15 councillors.

Election results

Cookstown District Council Election Result 1977 ^[1]

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SDLP	5	2	0	2	33.3	30.2	4,337	12.0
	Ulster Unionist	4	0	4	4	26.7	28.4	4,081	11.7
	UUUP	3	3	0	3	20.0	14.8	2,131	New
	Independent Republican	1	1	0	0	6.7	6.4	924	6.4
	DUP	1	1	0	1	6.7	5.9	846	New
	Independent Nationalist	1	0	1	1	6.7	5.8	840	2.9
	Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.0	5.2	746	1.1
	Republican Clubs	0	0	1	1	0.0	3.2	464	8.6

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

^[1]

Results of the Cookstown District Council election, 1977
by district

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	SDLP		UUP		UUUP		DUP		Others
Area A	19.1	1	22.8	1	11.0	1	17.7	1	29.4	1	5
Area B	35.3	2	16.5	1	28.4	2	0.0	0	19.8	1	6
Area C	36.3	2	52.4	2	0.0	0	0.0	0	11.3	0	4
Total	30.2	5	28.4	4	14.8	3	5.9	1	20.7	2	15

Districts results

Area A

1973: 2 x UUP, 1 x Republican Clubs, 1 x Loyalist Coalition, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1977: 1 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x UUUP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1973-1977 Change: SDLP and DUP gain from UUP and Republican Clubs, Loyalist Coalition joins UUUP

Cookstown Area A - 5 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	DUP	Richard Reid	17.67%	846
	Independent Nationalist	Laurence Loughran*	17.54%	840
	SDLP	Peter Kelly	12.87%	616	630	890
	Ulster Unionist	Samuel Glasgow*	14.95%	716	745	746	747.5	1,085.5
	UUUP	Samuel Parke*	10.96%	525	529	529	531.25	581.25	848.25
	Republican Clubs	Desmond Gourley	9.69%	464	471	490	573.25	573.25	574.25
	Ulster Unionist	Stanley Glasgow	7.83%	375	401	403	406
	SDLP	Charles O'Neill	6.22%	298	308
	Alliance	J. R. W. O'Connor	2.26%	108
Electorate: 5,982  Valid: 4,788 (80.04%)  Spoilt: 183  Quota: 799  Turnout: 4,971 (83.10%)

Area B

1973: 3 x UUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1977: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent Republican
1973-1977 Change: UUUP (two seats) and Independent Republican gain from UUP (two seats) and Independent Nationalist

Cookstown Area B - 6 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SDLP	Paddy Duffy *	17.21%	973
	Ulster Unionist	James Howard*	16.47%	931
	Independent Republican	Michael McIvor	16.34%	924
	UUUP	Victor McGahie*	16.29%	921
	UUUP	William McIntyre*	12.12%	685	685.85	778.54	856.54
	SDLP	Joseph Davidson*	10.42%	589	705.62	706.14	728.68	772.68
	SDLP	James Malone	7.71%	436	473.74	474.65	500.27	569.67
	Alliance	Austin Hutchinson	3.45%	195	197.38	219.61
Electorate: 7,343  Valid: 5,654 (77.00%)  Spoilt: 227  Quota: 808  Turnout: 5,881 (80.09%)

Area C

1973: 3 x UUP, 1 x SDLP
1977: 2 x UUP, 2 x SDLP
1973-1977 Change: SDLP gain from UUP

Cookstown Area C - 4 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Ulster Unionist	Espie Donaldson*	25.92%	1,018
	SDLP	Brigid Neeson*	20.40%	801
	Ulster Unionist	John Warwick*	18.05%	709	804.68
	SDLP	Margaret Laverty	15.89%	624	624.69	624.69	728.73	736.49
	Ulster Unionist	Alexander McConnell*	8.45%	332	458.73	474.41	730.44	730.5
	Alliance	Basil McNamee	11.28%	443	450.82	451.46
Electorate: 5,206  Valid: 3,927 (75.43%)  Spoilt: 121  Quota: 786  Turnout: 4,048 (77.76%)

References

1. "Local Government Elections 1973-1981: Cookstown". www.ark.ac.uk.
2. "Local Government Results 1977". EONI. Retrieved 5 August 2021.