1997 Down District Council election

← 1993

21 May 1997 (1997-05-21)

2001 →

All 23 seats to Down District Council
12 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Party	SDLP	UUP	DUP
Seats won	12	6	2
Seat change	1	1	1

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Party	Sinn Féin	NI Women's Coalition
Seats won	2	1
Seat change	2	1

Results by district electoral area, shaded by First Preference Votes.

Elections to Down District Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 23 councillors.

Down District Council Election Result 1997^[1]
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
SDLP	12	2	1	1	52.2	46.0	10,481	5.2
UUP	6	0	1	1	26.1	24.1	5,507	4.4
DUP	2	0	1	1	8.7	11.9	2,724	2.0
Sinn Féin	2	2	0	2	8.7	7.6	1,724	4.4
NI Women's Coalition	1	1	0	1	4.3	1.9	430	New
Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.0	3.7	850	0.1
Ind. Unionist	0	0	0	0	0.0	2.3	521	2.3
Labour Coalition	0	0	0	0	0.0	1.4	327	New
Workers' Party	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.6	132	0.0
Green (NI)	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.5	113	0.5

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

Results of the Down District Council election, 1997
by district
Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
SDLP	UUP	DUP	Sinn Féin	NIWC	Others
Ballynahinch	46.8	3	24.0	1	24.9	1	4.3	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	5
Downpatrick	61.0	5	13.2	1	0.0	0	10.8	1	0.0	0	15.0	0	7
Newcastle	47.2	3	17.6	1	9.4	0	14.2	1	7.4	1	4.2	0	6
Rowallane	26.6	1	43.9	3	15.1	1	0.0	0	0.0	0	14.4	0	5
Total	46.0	12	24.1	6	11.9	2	7.6	2	1.9	1	8.5	0	23

Districts results

Ballynahinch

1993: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1993-1997 Change: SDLP gain from UUP

Ballynahinch - 5 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6
	DUP	William Alexander*	24.91%	1,362
	SDLP	Patrick Toman*	21.89%	1,197
	UUP	Harvey Bicker	18.11%	990
	SDLP	Anne Marie McAleenan*	17.39%	951
	SDLP	Francis Casement	7.48%	409	413.2	672.64	821.91	823.11	856.51
	UUP	John Reid	5.94%	325	769.5	772.62	776.86	851.5	852.06
	Sinn Féin	John Smyth	4.28%	234	234.7	249.58
Electorate: 9,536 Valid: 5,468 (57.34%) Spoilt: 110 Quota: 912 Turnout: 5,578 (58.49%)

Downpatrick

1993: 6 x SDLP, 1 x UUP
1997: 5 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP
1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP

Downpatrick - 7 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	SDLP	John Doris*	16.17%	991
	SDLP	Peter Craig	14.98%	918
	UUP	Jack McIlheron*	13.09%	802
	SDLP	Dermot Curran*	12.20%	748	841.15
	SDLP	Owen Adams*	7.78%	477	534.5	580.91	622.71	623.31	626.13	657.29	764.52	806.52
	Sinn Féin	Patrick McGreevy	10.75%	659	664.29	668.88	670.4	670.4	674.1	700.09	712.23	757.15
	SDLP	Gerard Mahon	6.80%	417	431.03	455.17	465.24	465.78	469.03	476.89	623.69	654.46
	Alliance	Michael Healy	7.03%	431	437.44	444.41	448.02	472.62	476.25	536.88	542.1	594.88
	Labour Coalition	Patrick O'Connor	4.10%	251	253.53	255.23	255.99	256.83	269.39	323.38	329.61
	SDLP	John Irvine	3.08%	189	225.34	277.87	291.36	291.66	293.29	307.26
	Green (NI)	Keith Bradford	1.84%	113	116.45	118.49	119.82	122.76	123.22
	Workers' Party	Desmond O'Hagan	0.93%	57	57.92	59.28	59.47	59.65	59.88
	Labour Coalition	Edna Furey	0.67%	41	41.92	43.62	44.19	47.49	53.72
	Labour Coalition	Michael Kearney	0.57%	35	37.53	43.14	43.71	44.07
Electorate: 12,631 Valid: 6,129 (48.52%) Spoilt: 80 Quota: 767 Turnout: 6,209 (49.16%)

Newcastle

1993: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Women's Coalition
1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin and Women's Coalition gain from SDLP and DUP

Newcastle - 6 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	SDLP	Eamon O'Neill*	15.63%	913
	Sinn Féin	Hugh McDowell	14.22%	831	837
	UUP	Gerald Douglas*	13.23%	773	775	792	1,009
	SDLP	Carmel O'Boyle	12.24%	715	733	755	758	758.99	1,006.99
	SDLP	Peter Fitzpatrick*	12.08%	706	711	723	723	724.98	870.98
	NI Women's Coalition	Anne Carr	7.36%	430	451	532	540	565.74	605.73	672.73	748.13	779.13
	DUP	Stanley Priestley	9.45%	552	552	554	588	729.57	731.56	732.56	733.08	734.08
	SDLP	Frances Flynn*	7.22%	422	431	456	459	461.97
	UUP	Ronald Richey	4.43%	259	259	271
	Alliance	Adrienne Healy	2.86%	167	175
	Workers' Party	Edward O'Hagan	1.28%	75
Electorate: 10,884 Valid: 5,843 (53.68%) Spoilt: 115 Quota: 835 Turnout: 5,958 (54.74%)

Rowallane

1993: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1993-1997 Change: No change

Rowallane - 5 seats^[2]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie*	19.44%	1,044
	UUP	Samuel Osborne*	15.76%	846	847.96	888.24	1,105.24
	DUP	William Dick*	15.09%	810	810.56	819.56	963.56
	UUP	Albert Colmer*	15.22%	817	817.84	865.26	899.26
	UUP	William Biggerstaff*	12.94%	695	695.28	734.28	801.56	925.56
	SDLP	John Moffat	7.15%	384	516.58	584.82	602.52	605.52
	Ind. Unionist	William Walker	9.70%	521	522.82	543.96
	Alliance	Barry Corscadden	4.69%	252	255.5
Electorate: 10,036 Valid: 5,369 (53.50%) Spoilt: 78 Quota: 895 Turnout: 5,447 (54.27%)

v t e Council elections in County Down
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council	2014 2019 2023
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council	2014 2019 2023
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council	2014 2019 2023
Ards and North Down Borough Council	2014 2019 2023
Ards Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Banbridge District Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Castlereagh Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Craigavon Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Down District Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Lisburn City Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
Newry and Mourne District Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished
North Down Borough Council	1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2011 Abolished

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