Northern Ireland Forum

The Northern Ireland Forum, or formally the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 to conduct the negotiations that eventually led to the Belfast Agreement (or the Good Friday Agreement) in 1998.

The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westminster Parliamentary constituency for Northern Ireland, under the D'Hondt method. There was also a "topup" of two for the ten parties polling most votes; this ensured that two loyalist parties associated with paramilitary groups were represented.

The results of the election were as follows

style="width: 2px; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #2AA82C;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #F6CB2F;" data-sort-value="Alliance Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #660066;" data-sort-value="UK Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #2B45A2;" data-sort-value="Progressive Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: aqua;" data-sort-value="Northern Ireland Women's Coalition" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #8dc63f;" data-sort-value="Green Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #930C1A;" data-sort-value="Workers Party (Ireland)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #C700C7;" data-sort-value="Democratic Left (Ireland)" |

Party		Votes	Vote %	Constituency seats	Top-up seats	Total seats
Ulster Unionist	181,829	24.17%	28	2	30
Social Democratic and Labour	160,786	21.36%	19	2	21
Democratic Unionist [1]	141,413	18.80%	22	2	24
Sinn Féin	116,377	15.47%	15	2	17
Alliance	49,176	6.54%	5	2	7
UK Unionist	27,774	3.69%	1	2	3
PUP	26,082	3.47%	0	2	2
	Ulster Democratic	16,715	2.22%	0	2	2
NI Women's Coalition	7,731	1.03%	0	2	2
	Labour Coalition	6,425	0.85%	0	2	2
Green (NI)	3,647	0.49%	0	0	0
Conservative	3,595	0.48%	0	0	0
Workers' Party	3,530	0.47%	0	0	0
	Ulster Independence Movement	2,125	0.47%	0	0	0
Democratic Left	1,215	0.16%	0	0	0
	Democratic Partnership	1,046	0.14%	0	0	0

All parties with over 1,000 votes shown.

^ The party was listed on the ballot paper as "Democratic Unionist Party DUP Ian Paisley"

External links

• Official site

References

• http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996/1996011.htm
• http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/ff96.htm