Election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998

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1996Election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 19982003
(Share of votes in%)
 %
30th
20th
10
0
22.0
21.3
18.0
17.7
6.5
4.5
2.9
2.6
4.4
Gains and losses
compared to 1996
 % p
   4th
   2
   0
  -2
  -4
+0.6
-2.9
-0.8
+2.2
± 0.0
+0.8
+2.9
-0.9
+2.5
Distribution of seats
         
A total of 108 seats

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%.

Percentage of seats won by party in Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies
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

Individual evidence

  1. a b 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. wesleyjohnston.com, accessed March 7, 2015 .
  2. a b Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 1998. arc.ac.uk, accessed on March 7, 2015 (English).
  3. ^ Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Northern Ireland Assembly, accessed March 7, 2015 .
  4. ^ A b Paul Norris: The 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly Election . Politics (2000) 20 (1) pp. 39-42. doi : 10.1111 / 1467-9256.00109
  5. ^ The Nobel Peace Prize for 1998. Nobel Committee Oslo, 1998, accessed March 6, 2015 .