Queen's University of Belfast (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Queen's University Belfast was enfrachised in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at Westminster under the Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918 with a single-member university constituency.^[1] Under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Queen's University of Belfast constituency at Westminster retained representation and a new 4-member constituency eleced by single transferable vote (STV) was created for the new 52-member House of Commons of Northern Ireland.^[2]

The first election to the new parliament took place in May 1921. Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the self-declared Irish Republic run by Sinn Féin, passed a resolution declaring that elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland would be treated as the election for the Second Dáil.^[3] All those elected were on the roll of the Second Dáil, but as no Sinn Féin MP was elected for Queen's University, it was not represented there.^[4]

After the House of Commons (Method of Voting and Redistribution of Seats) Act (Northern Ireland) 1929, Queen's University was the only constituency in the Northern Ireland House of Commons to retain STV. Under the Representation of the People Act 1948, university constituencies at Westminster were abolished with effect at the 1950 general election.

The constituency was abolished under section 1 of the Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1968, which ended plural voting in Northern Ireland. This took effect at the 1969 Northern Ireland general election.^[5]