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Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 2003

Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
NI flax V1.png
← 1998 26 November 2003 2007 →

All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
55 seats needed for a majority
Turnout 63.0% Decrease 6.8%
  First party Second party Third party
  Ian Paisley - (cropped).png David Trimble.jpg Gerry Adams 2013.jpg
Leader Ian Paisley David Trimble Gerry Adams
Party DUP UUP Sinn Féin
Leader since 30 September 1971 8 September 1995 13 November 1983
Leader's seat North Antrim Upper Bann Belfast West
Last election 20 seats (18.5%) 28 seats (21.3%) 18 seats (16.7%)
Seats won 30 27 24
Seat change Increase10 Decrease1 Increase6
Popular vote 177,944 156,931 162,758
Percentage 25.7% 22.7% 23.5%
Swing Increase7.2% Increase1.4% Increase6.8%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  MarkDurkan.jpg DavidFordAlliance.jpg David ervine.jpg
Leader Mark Durkan David Ford David Ervine
Party SDLP Alliance PUP
Leader since 10 November 2001 6 October 2001 2002
Leader's seat Foyle South Antrim Belfast East
Last election 24 seats (22%) 6 seats (5.6%) 1 seat (2.6%)
Seats won 18 6 1
Seat change Decrease6 Steady 0 Decrease 1
Popular vote 117,547 25,372 8,032
Percentage 17.0% 3.7% 1.2%
Swing Decrease5% Decrease1.9% Decrease 1.4%

Northern Ireland Assembly election 2003.png
Percentage of seats gained by each of the party.

First Minister before election

Suspended

Elected First Minister

Suspended


Suspended

Suspended

The second elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which at the time of the elections had been suspended for just over a year, were held on Wednesday 26 November 2003. Six members were elected by Single Transferable Vote from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, giving a total of 108 MLAs, or Members of the Legislative Assembly. The elections were contested by 18 parties, and a number of independent candidates.

The elections were originally planned for May 2003, but were delayed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

On the unionist side, the Democratic Unionist Party gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller Unionist parties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes. Despite slipping to third place in first preference votes the Ulster Unionist Party actually increased their vote slightly and had a net loss of only one seat. Shortly after the election three Ulster Unionist MLAs, Jeffrey Donaldson, Nora Beare and Arlene Foster, defected to the Democratic Unionists.

On the nationalist side, Sinn Féin saw a big increase in their vote, gaining six seats at the net expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

The minor parties all saw a significant fall in their support. The Alliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote almost halving, the Women's Coalition, United Unionist Coalition and Northern Ireland Unionist Party were all wiped out, and the Progressive Unionist Party and UK Unionist Party had just one seat each.


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