1981 Ballymoney Borough Council election

Main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1981

1981 Ballymoney Borough Council election

←  1977 20 May 1981 (1981-05-20) 1985  →
All 16 seats to Ballymoney Borough Council 9 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party DUP UUP Independent Seats won 7 3 3 Seat change 4 2 0   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party SDLP Alliance Ind. Unionist Seats won 2 1 0 Seat change 1 0 1

Elections to Ballymoney Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 16 councillors.

Election results

Ballymoney Borough Council Election Result 1981 ^[1]

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	DUP	7	4	0	4	43.8	40.3	4,310	21.1
	UUP	3	0	2	2	18.8	24.0	2,563	5.4
	Independent	3	0	0	0	18.8	17.8	1,899	7.0
	SDLP	2	0	1	1	12.5	9.9	1,054	5.2
	Alliance	1	1	1	0	6.3	8.1	868	0.2

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

^[1]

Results of the Ballymoney Borough Council election, 1981
by district

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	DUP		UUP		SDLP		Alliance		Others
Area A	53.8	2	27.2	1	0.0	0	19.0	1	0.0	0	4
Area B	31.6	3	30.3	2	21.3	2	0.0	0	16.8	1	8
Area C	42.3	2	10.8	0	11.6	0	0.0	0	35.3	2	4
Total	40.3	7	24.0	3	9.9	2	8.1	1	17.7	3	16

Districts results

Area A

1977: 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP
1981: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance
1977-1981 Change: Alliance gain from UUP

Ballymoney Area A - 4 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
	DUP	Robert Halliday*	21.17%	575
	UUP	Kenneth Bamford*	14.87%	404	666
	Alliance	Hugh McFarland	19.00%	516	525	567
	DUP	James Patterson	17.82%	484	512	544
	DUP	Robert Wilson	14.84%	403	423	441
	UUP	Adam Taylor*	6.92%	188
	DUP	Olive Craig	5.38%	146
Electorate: 3,877  Valid: 2,716 (70.05%)  Spoilt: 41  Quota: 544  Turnout: 2,757 (71.11%)

Area B

1977: 3 x UUP, 3 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Independent
1981: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Independent
1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) gain from UUP and SDLP

Ballymoney Area B - 8 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	DUP	Charles Steele*	16.01%	791
	Independent	Hugh Boyle*	12.45%	615
	UUP	Joe Gaston *	12.06%	596
	SDLP	Harry Connolly*	6.78%	335	335	345.67	350.19	485.17	485.17	495.17	784.17
	SDLP	Edward McClements	7.10%	351	351.62	376.59	477.94	502.04	502.11	506.11	529.17	735.17
	DUP	William Gracey	9.59%	474	511.2	511.42	511.42	511.42	512.75	529.41	531.41	531.41	532.41
	UUP	William Logan*	7.33%	362	382.77	384.75	384.86	386.3	413.18	501.02	502.55	503.55	516.55
	DUP	Bertie McIlhatton	6.03%	298	457.34	457.56	457.56	457.56	460.64	483.12	485.43	485.43	487.43
	UUP	Patricia Ellis*	5.63%	278	284.2	285.08	285.08	285.19	290.44	399.22	399.33	400.33	411.33
	SDLP	John Mulholland*	5.48%	271	271.93	276.88	279.31	325.18	325.18	326.6
	UUP	Samuel Barlett	5.28%	261	274.33	275.32	275.32	276.43	281.05
	Independent	Margaret Donnelly	4.29%	212	212	217.94	218.16
	SDLP	Malachy McCamphill	1.96%	97	97.31	109.85
Electorate: 6,904  Valid: 4,941 (71.57%)  Spoilt: 122  Quota: 550  Turnout: 5,063 (73.33%)

Area C

1977: 2 x Independent, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist
1981: 2 x DUP, 2 x Independent
1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) gain from Alliance and Independent Unionist

Ballymoney Area C - 5 seats ^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	DUP	Cecil Cousley	24.60%	747
	DUP	Ralph Stronge	17.71%	538	540	648.54
	Independent	Mary Holmes*	18.67%	567	589	600.52	753.52
	Independent	Robert McComb*	11.62%	353	379	386.56	511.98	617.98
	Alliance	Brendan Smyth*	11.59%	352	435	435.36	462.54	476.54
	UUP	James Simpson	10.80%	328	337	342.04
	Independent	Thomas McKenna	5.00%	152
Electorate: 4,923  Valid: 3,037 (61.69%)  Spoilt: 65  Quota: 608  Turnout: 3,102 (63.01%)

References

1. "Local Government Elections 1973-1981: Ballymoney". www.ark.ac.uk.
2. "Local Government Results 1981". EONI. Retrieved 8 July 2021.