The pre-1922 constituency was a strongly conservative then unionist area, where republican and nationalist candidates were not elected. A victory for the Unionist candidate in 1918 by 15,206 votes to Sinn Féin's 861 votes demonstrated the virtual unanimity of the unionist support. Sinn Féin did not contest the 1919 East Antrim by-election.
Similarly, the post-1983 constituency has been overwhelmingly unionist, with the combined votes for nationalist parties rarely exceeding 10%. However, there have been above average votes for parties outside the traditional unionist block, such as the Alliance and the Conservatives. In the local government elections for the equivalent area many votes often go to independent candidates or groups such as the Newtownabbey Ratepayers Association. While the SDLP sprung a surprise in 1998 by overtaking a DUP candidate to win the final seat due to Ulster Unionist transfers – the first time that any nationalist candidate has benefited in this way.
The main interest in Westminster Elections has been the contest between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. In 1983 the UUP were only 367 votes ahead of the DUP. As part of a pact to oppose the Anglo-Irish Agreement the DUP did not contest the seat until 1992 but they still failed to come close, though in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum they were only slightly behind the UUP. But in the 2001 general election they achieved an astonishing result when they came with 128 votes of winning the Westminster seat, despite not having targeted it. In the 2003 Assembly election they followed this up by gaining two additional MLAs and outpolling the UUP for the first time.
The DUP remained eager to take the Westminster seat and in the 2005 general election they did so.
The current constituency of East Antrim was recreated in boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, from parts of North Antrim and South Antrim. Since further revisions in 1995 (when it lost part of the district of Newtownabbey to the North Belfast constituency) it now covers the entirety of the districts of Larne and Carrickfergus, as well as part of Newtownabbey and Moyle.
Prior to the 2010 general election the Boundary Commission originally proposed two significant changes for East Antrim. In the south of the constituency it was proposed to transfer a further part of Newtownabbey to the North Belfast constituency whilst in the north the seat would have gained the Glens and Ballycastle in Moyle district from North Antrim. East Antrim would have been renamed 'Antrim Coast & Glens'. However this latter part of the proposal raised many questions, with some already arguing that the Glens have no natural ties to Jordanstown (and in 1995 the previous Boundary Commission cited this very reason when rejecting such a proposal).
Following consultation and revising the recommendations, the new boundaries for East Antrim were confirmed and passed through Parliament by the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Constituencies Order as follows:[6]
The District of Antrim and Newtownabbey wards of Abbey, Jordanstown, Monkstown, and Rostulla, the District of Causeway Coat and Glens ward of Lurigethan, and the District of Mid and East Antrim wards of Ballycarry and Glynn, Boneybefore, Burleigh Hill, Cairncastle, Carnlough and Glenarm, Castle, Craigyhill, Curran and Inver, Gardenmore, Glenravel, Glenwhirry, Glenwhirry, Gortalee, Greenisland, Islandmagee, Kilroot, Kilwaughter, Love Lane, Slemish, Slemish, Sunnylands, The Maidens, Victoria, Whitehead South, and Woodburn.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
