Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007

This article is about the assembly election in Northern Ireland. For the general election in the Republic of Ireland, see Irish general election, 2007.

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007

7 March 2007
All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly 55 seats were needed for a majority in the Assembly All 12 seats to the Northern Ireland Executive
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ian Paisley Gerry Adams Reg Empey Party DUP Sinn Féin UUP Leader since 30 September 1971 13 November 1983 24 June 2005 Leader's seat North Antrim Belfast West Belfast East Last election 30 seats (27.8%) 24 seats (23.5%) 27 seats (22.7%) Seats won 36 28 18 Seat change 6 4 9 Popular vote 207,721 180,573 103,145 Percentage 30.1% 26.2% 14.9% Swing 2.3% 2.7% 7.8%   Fourth party Fifth party   150x150px Leader Mark Durkan David Ford Party SDLP Alliance Leader since 10 November 2001 6 October 2001 Leader's seat Foyle South Antrim Last election 18 seats (17%) 6 seats (3.7%) Seats won 16 7 Seat change 2 1 Popular vote 105,164 36,139 Percentage 15.2% 5.2% Swing 1.8% 1.5%
450px Percentage of seats gained by each of the party.
First Minister before election Suspended First Minister-designate Ian Paisley DUP

The third elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on 7 March 2007 when 108 members were elected. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, along with the Alliance Party, increase their support, with falls in support for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

Background

At the 2003 election the DUP became the largest party. As it opposed the Belfast Agreement, there was no prospect of the assembly voting for the First and deputy First Ministers. Therefore, the British Government did not restore power to the Assembly and the elected members never met. Instead there commenced a protracted series of negotiations. During these negotiations a legally separate assembly, known as The Assembly consisting of the members elected in 2003 was formed in May 2006 to enable the parties to negotiate and to prepare for government.

Eventually, in October 2006, the governments and the parties, including the DUP, made the St Andrews Agreement and a new transitional assembly came into effect on 24 November 2006. The British government agreed to fresh elections and the transitional assembly was dissolved on 30 January 2007, after which campaigning began.

The process

The election was conducted using the single transferable vote applied to six-seat constituencies, each of which corresponds to a UK parliamentary seat. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister were chosen by the largest parties from the two different political designations. Parties who won seats were then allocated places on the executive committee in proportion to their seats in the Assembly using the D'Hondt method.

The campaign

The major parties standing were the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) on the Unionist side, and Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) on the Nationalist side. The largest cross-community party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, contested the election in 17 of 18 constituencies. Smaller parties also included the Progressive Unionist Party, the Green Party and the UK Unionist Party. Some independent Unionists also stood.

Among the other parties that stood, the Conservatives nominated nine and there were six candidates for the Workers' Party. Also there were four candidates for Make Politicians History and two for the Socialist Party. Six Republican Sinn Féin-aligned candidates also stood. As the party had chosen not to register as a political party with the electoral commission, the party name did not appear alongside its candidates on ballot papers.

One of the key issues in the election was which two political parties would gain the largest number of Assembly seats. The St Andrews Agreement stated that the First Minister will be chosen from the largest party of the largest political designation and the Deputy First Minister from the largest party from the second largest political designation; however, the actual legislation states that the largest party shall make the nomination regardless of designation.

The results

The DUP remained the largest party in the Assembly, making significant gains from the UUP. Sinn Féin made gains from the SDLP and was the largest party among the Nationalists. The only other Assembly Party to make gains was the liberal Alliance Party (winning seven seats, a gain of one), while the Progressive Unionist Party and independent health campaigner Dr Kieran Deeny retained their single seats, and were joined by the Green Party, which won its first Assembly seat, and increased its first preference votes fourfold from 2003. The UK Unionist Party lost its representation in the Assembly. They had contested 12 seats, with Robert McCartney standing in six of them.

Overall, Unionist parties were collectively down 4 seats, Nationalist parties were collectively up 2 seats, and others were up 2 seats.

The election was notable as it saw the first Chinese-born person to be elected to a parliamentary institution in Europe: Anna Lo of the Alliance Party.

File:Northern Ireland election seats 2007.png

Largest share of first preference vote by constituency.

(in order of first preference vote)

	Party	Leader	Candidates	Seats	Change from 2003	1st Pref Votes	1st Pref %	Change from 2003	Executive seats
	DUP	Ian Paisley	46	36	+6	207,721	30.1	+4.4	5
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	37	28	+4	180,573	26.2	+2.6	4
	SDLP	Mark Durkan	35	16	−2	105,164	15.2	−1.8	1
	UUP	Reg Empey	38	18	−9	103,145	14.9	−7.7	2
	Alliance	David Ford	18	7	+1	36,139	5.2	+1.5	—
	Independent	N/A	20	1	±0	19,471	2.8	+1.9	—
	Green (NI)	John Barry	13	1	+1	11,985	1.7	+1.3	—
	UK Unionist	Bob McCartney	13	0	−1	10,452	1.5	+0.7	—
	PUP	Dawn Purvis	3	1	±0	3,822	0.6	−0.6	—
	NI Conservatives	David Cameron	9	0	—	3,457	0.5	+0.3	—
	Republican Sinn Féin†	Ruairí Ó Brádaigh	6	0	—	2,522	0.4	N/A	—
	Socialist Environmental	Goretti Horgan	1	0	—	2,045	0.3	−0.1	—
	UKIP	Nigel Farage	1	0	—	1,229	0.2	N/A	—
	Workers' Party	John Lowry	6	0	—	975	0.1	−0.1	—
	People Before Profit	Gordon Hewitt	1	0	—	774	0.1	N/A	—
	Socialist Party	Peter Hadden	2	0	—	473	0.1	+0.1	—
	Make Politicians History	Ronnie Carroll	4	0	—	221	0.0	N/A	—
	Labour Party NI	Malachi Curran	1	0	—	123	0.0	N/A	—
	Procapitalism	Samuel Charles Smyth	1	0	—	22	0.0	N/A	—

Notes:

• Total valid poll 690,191. Electorate: 1,107,904; turnout: 62.31%.
• Party leaders listed are those who were registered with the Electoral Commission as of 07:00 on 7 March 2007.

^†The six candidates of Republican Sinn Féin, which did not register as a political party with the Electoral Commission, are included in some media reports as Independents. They themselves rejected this term, and, apart from one of its candidates who was described as an Independent, no description was used for its candidates on ballot papers.

^ Includes post of First Minister

^ Includes post of Deputy First Minister

Votes summary

Popular vote
DUP			30.1%
Sinn Féin			26.16%
SDLP			15.24%
Ulster Unionist			14.94%
Alliance			5.24%
Green			1.74%
United Kingdom Unionist			1.51%
Progressive Unionist			0.55%
Independent			2.82%
Other			1.7%

Seats summary

Assembly seats
DUP			33.33%
Sinn Féin			25.93%
SDLP			14.81%
Ulster Unionist			16.67%
Alliance			6.48%
Green			0.93%
Progressive Unionist			0.93%
Independent			0.93%

Executive Committee seats

Parties who won seats are allocated places on the Executive Committee using the D'Hondt method and under the St Andrews agreement the largest party gets the right to nominate the first minister and the largest party perceived to be from "the other side" nominates the deputy first minister. Despite the name these offices are in fact of equal right. Note that they are both ministers in the same department (Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister). Using this system, the executive appointed in 2007 was as follows:

Department		Minister	Party
First Minister		Ian Paisley	DUP
Deputy First Minister		Martin McGuinness	Sinn Féin
Enterprise, Trade and Investment		Nigel Dodds	DUP
Finance & Personnel		Peter Robinson	DUP
Regional Development		Conor Murphy	Sinn Féin
Education		Caitríona Ruane	Sinn Féin
Employment and Learning		Sir Reg Empey	UUP
Environment		Arlene Foster	DUP
Culture, Arts & Leisure		Edwin Poots	DUP
Health, Social Services & Public Safety		Michael McGimpsey	UUP
Agriculture		Michelle Gildernew	Sinn Féin
Social Development		Margaret Ritchie	SDLP

There are two junior ministers in OFMDFM who are, at present, Jeffery Donaldson (DUP) and Gerry Kelly (SF). In April 2010, the Department of Justice was formed, being led by David Ford from the Alliance Party. This is the Alliance Party's first ministerial role.

Opinion polls

An opinion poll by Ipsos MORI, published in The Belfast Telegraph on 1 March 2007, reported the voting intentions of those who intended to vote and had decided which party to vote for:

Party		Percentage	Actual Vote
	DUP	25	30
	Sinn Féin	22	26
	SDLP	20	15
	UUP	16	15
	Alliance	9	5
	Green (NI)	3	2
	Conservative	1	0.5
	UK Unionist	1	1.5
	PUP	1	0.5
	Independent	1	3

MLAs who lost their seats at the election

• Michael Copeland (UUP, Belfast East)
• Esmond Birnie (UUP, Belfast South)
• Diane Dodds (DUP, Belfast West)
• Norman Hillis (UUP, East Londonderry)
• Marietta Farrell (SDLP, Lagan Valley)
• Billy Bell (UUP, Lagan Valley)
• Paul Berry (Ind, Newry and Armagh)
• Davy Hyland (Ind, Newry and Armagh)
• Robert McCartney (UKUP, North Down)
• George Ennis (UKUP, Strangford)
• Eugene McMenamin (SDLP, West Tyrone)
• Derek Hussey (UUP, West Tyrone)

Notes: Berry and Ennis were originally elected as DUP candidates, Hyland was originally elected as a Sinn Féin candidate.

MLAs who stood down at the election

• Eileen Bell (Alliance/Speaker, North Down)
• Seamus Close (Alliance, Lagan Valley)
• Geraldine Dougan (Sinn Féin, Mid Ulster)
• Sean Farren (SDLP, North Antrim)
• Patricia Lewsley^† (SDLP, Lagan Valley)
• Philip McGuigan (Sinn Féin, North Antrim)
• Dermot Nesbitt (UUP, South Down)
• Tom O'Reilly (Sinn Féin, Fermanagh and South Tyrone)
• Kathy Stanton (Sinn Féin, North Belfast)
• Lord Kilclooney (UUP)
• Lord Trimble (UUP, Upper Bann)
• Jim Wilson (UUP, South Antrim)

^†Patricia Lewsley stood down prior to the dissolution of the assembly

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

MLAs deselected by their party

• Wilson Clyde (DUP, South Antrim)
• George Ennis (DUP, Strangford)
• Paul Girvan (DUP, South Antrim)
• Davy Hyland (Sinn Féin, Newry and Armagh)
• Patricia O'Rawe (Sinn Féin, Newry and Armagh)
• Norah Beare^↑ (DUP, Lagan Valley)
• Mark Robinson (DUP, Belfast South)

^↑ As a sitting MLA, Norah Beare defected from the UUP to the DUP, and is therefore unselected rather than deselected

Following their de-selection, both Ennis and Hyland unsuccessfully sought election under the UKUP and independent labels respectively.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

MLAs deceased since 2003 election

• David Ervine (PUP, Belfast East)
• Michael Ferguson (Sinn Féin, Belfast West)

See also

• Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected in 2007
• Irish general election, 2007
• Scottish Parliament election, 2007
• Welsh Assembly election, 2007

External links

• RTÉ News - Northern Ireland 2007 elections
• BBC Guide to the elections
• Electoral Commission guide to election
• Candidates Statements (nominators/addresses etc.)