Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998

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Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998
All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
25 June 1998
		First party	Second party	Third party
Leader		David Trimble	John Hume	Ian Paisley
Party		Ulster Unionist	Social Democratic and Labour	Democratic Unionist
Leader since		8 September 1995	28 November 1979	30 September 1971
Leader's seat		Upper Bann	Foyle	North Antrim
Last election		30 seats (24.2%)	21 seats (21.4%)	24 seats (18.8%)
Seats won		28	24	20
Seat change		-2	+3	-4
Popular vote		172,225	177,963	145,917
Percentage		21.3%	22.0%	18.5%
		Fourth party	Fifth party
Leader		Gerry Adams	John Alderdice
Party		Sinn Féin	Alliance
Leader since		13 November 1983	3 October 1987
Leader's seat		Belfast West	Belfast East
Last election		17 seats (15.5%)	7 seats (6.5%)
Seats won		18	6
Seat change		+1	-1
Popular vote		142,858	52,636
Percentage		16.7%	5.6%
Incumbent First Minister New position First Minister-elect David Trimble Ulster Unionist

Northern Ireland

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Northern Ireland

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The first elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on June 25, 1998. 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.

Results

The result was (first preference votes only):

All parties with over 500 votes listed. Electorate: 1,178,556; Turnout: 823,565 (69.88%); Spoiled votes: 13,248; Valid: 810,317.

¹ Independent candidates were ranked 14, 15 and 16; other independents won fewer than 500 votes.

Votes summary

Seats summary

Details

Although the SDLP won the most first preference votes, the Ulster Unionists won the most seats in the Assembly. This has been attributed to several reasons, including:

• Slightly differential turnouts across the province, with the result that in the more staunchly unionist east fewer votes were required to elect an MLA than in the SDLP's heartlands in the west.
• The Ulster Unionists proved better at "vote balancing" whereby in the rounds of transfers their candidates were less likely to be eliminated earlier on.
• The Ulster Unionists proved better at attracting transfers from other parties (and due to the vote balancing mentioned above, were more likely to be in a position to benefit from this)

See also

• Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected in 1998
• Northern Ireland Assembly