Election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998
The election for the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998 on June 25, 1998 was the first election for the newly established Northern Ireland Assembly ("Northern Ireland Assembly"). In the election, unionist parties received a majority of the votes and seats in parliament. After the election, a multi-party coalition government was formed under David Trimble as First Minister .
background
The election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on May 1, 1997, New Labor under its chairman Tony Blair had won with a clear majority. This marked the end of 18 years of conservative government. Labor promises to hold referendums on devolution , that is, the decentralization of the United Kingdom. In referendums in Scotland on September 11, 1997 and in Wales on September 18, a majority of voters approved the establishment of regional parliaments in these parts of the country. In Northern Ireland, too, a referendum was held on May 22, 1998 to approve the so-called Good Friday Agreement . The agreements of the Good Friday Agreement also included the establishment of a separate representative body and executive branch for Northern Ireland. In the referendum, a majority of Northern Irish voters approved the agreements. June 25, 1998 was set as the first election date for the Northern Irish Parliament.
Suffrage
The election is based on a preference voting system (single transferable vote) . Six MPs were elected in each of the 18 North Irish constituencies for Parliament in Westminster . The entire parliament thus consisted of 108 members.
Spectrum of parties
The following table gives a rough overview of the political orientation of the largest parties. The spectrum of parties was divided fairly largely along denominational lines. Protestants were mostly associated with the unionist parties and Catholics with the republican side.
Political party | Abbreviation | Political Direction |
---|---|---|
Ulster Unionist Party | UUP | conservative unionist |
Social Democratic and Labor Party | SDLP | republican-social-democratic |
Democratic Unionist Party | DUP | radical unionist, originally opposed the Good Friday Agreement |
Sinn Féin | SF | political arm of the IRA , Republican |
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | Alliance | liberal, originally unionist, later increasingly "neutral" |
UK Unionist Party | UKUP | radical unionist, opposed the Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland self-government |
Independent unionists | union | non-party unionists |
Progressive Unionist Party | PUP | Unionism, the political arm of the Ulster Volunteer Force , socio-politically more in the center-left spectrum, supported the Good Friday Agreement |
Results
The following table shows the election results. The votes in the table correspond to the votes of first preference. The voter turnout was comparatively high at 70.0%. In the general election of the UK in 1997 it was 67.1%, but in the Northern Ireland referendum in 1998 it was 81.1%.
Political party | be right | Votes in% |
Seats | Seats in% |
---|---|---|---|---|
Social Democratic and Labor Party | 177.963 | 21.99% | 24 | 22.2% |
Ulster Unionist Party | 172.225 | 21.28% | 28 | 25.9% |
Democratic Unionist Party | 145.917 | 18.03% | 20th | 18.5% |
Sinn Féin | 142,858 | 17.65% | 18th | 16.7% |
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | 52,636 | 6.50% | 6th | 5.6% |
UK Unionist Party | 36,541 | 4.52% | 5 | 4.6% |
Independent unionists | 24,339 | 2.85% | 3 | 2.8% |
Progressive Unionist Party | 20,634 | 2.55% | 2 | 1.9% |
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition | 13,019 | 1.61% | 2 | 1.9% |
Ulster Democratic Party | 8,651 | 1.07% | 0 | |
Independent | 5,392 | 0.69% | 0 | |
Labor Party of Northern Ireland | 2,729 | 0.34% | 0 | |
Workers' Party of Ireland | 1,989 | 0.25% | 0 | |
Conservative Party in Northern Ireland | 1,835 | 0.23% | 0 | |
Ulster Independence Movement | 1,227 | 0.15% | 0 | |
Natural Law Party | 832 | 0.10% | 0 | |
Socialist Party | 789 | 0.10% | 0 | |
Green Party in Northern Ireland | 710 | 0.09% | 0 | |
total | 786.132 | 100.00% | 108 | 100.0% |
Evaluation of the election result
Unionist parties won 58 of the 108 seats, Irish Republican parties (Sinn Féin and SDLP) won 48, and largely neutral parties (Alliance, NI Women's Coalition) won 8. Of the 108 MPs, 80 supported the Good Friday Agreement. The 28 MPs who opposed the agreement consisted of the DUP (20), UKUP (5), and independent unionists (3). The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) became the strongest party by seats and thus remained the leading unionist party. However, it suffered significant losses compared to previous elections and lost votes mainly to the DUP and UKUP. The SDLP, headed by John Hume , became the strongest party for the first time by votes. On July 1, 1998, David Trimble, the party leader of the UUP, was elected First Minister of Northern Ireland. He led a coalition government made up of UUP, SDLP, DUP and SF, which remained in office until 2002. In October 1998 David Trimble (UUP) and John Hume (SDLP) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Northern Ireland conflict ”.
Web links
- 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. wesleyjohnston.com, accessed March 7, 2015 (English, detailed election results).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. wesleyjohnston.com, accessed March 7, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 1998. arc.ac.uk, accessed on March 7, 2015 (English).
- ^ Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Northern Ireland Assembly, accessed March 7, 2015 .
- ^ A b Paul Norris: The 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election . Politics (2000) 20 (1) pp. 39-42. doi : 10.1111 / 1467-9256.00109
- ^ The Nobel Peace Prize for 1998. Nobel Committee Oslo, 1998, accessed March 6, 2015 .