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1969 Northern Ireland general election

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Field	Value
election_name	1969 Northern Ireland general election
country	Northern Ireland
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1965 Northern Ireland general election
previous_year	1965
previous_mps	List of members of the 11th House of Commons of Northern Ireland
elected_mps	MPs elected
next_election	1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election
next_year	1973
seats_for_election	All 52 seats to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland
27 seats were needed for a majority
election_date	24 February 1969
image1
leader1	Terence O'Neill
leader_since1	25 March 1963
party1	Ulster Unionist Party
leaders_seat1	Bannside
last_election1	36 seats, 59.1%
seats1	36
seat_change1
popular_vote1	269,501
percentage1	48.2%
swing1	10.9%
image2
leader2	Eddie McAteer
leader_since2	2 June 1964
party2	Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)
leaders_seat2	Foyle (Lost)
last_election2	9 seats, 8.2%
seats2	6
seat_change2	3
popular_vote2	42,315
percentage2	7.6%
swing2	0.6%
leader4	Tom Boyd
leader_since4	1958
party4	Northern Ireland Labour Party
leaders_seat4	Belfast Pottinger (Lost)
last_election4	2 seats, 20.4%
seats4	2
seat_change4
popular_vote4	45,113
percentage4	8.1%
swing4	12.3%
leader5	Gerry Fitt
leader_since5	1964
party5	Republican Labour Party
leaders_seat5	Belfast Dock
last_election5	2 seats, 1.0%
seats5	2
seat_change5
popular_vote5	13,115
percentage5	1.4%
swing5	0.4%
map_size	300px
map_image	File:Northern Ireland general election 1969.png
map_caption	Election results by constituency
title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Prime Minister after election
before_election	Terence O'Neill
before_party	Ulster Unionist Party
after_election	Terence O'Neill
after_party	Ulster Unionist Party

27 seats were needed for a majority

The 1969 Northern Ireland general election was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.

This was the first (and only) election since the 1929 general election to see changes to the constituencies. The Queen's University of Belfast seat was abolished and four new constituencies were created in the suburbs of Belfast to compensate for population growth there.

Overview

Unlike previous elections that produced a large unambiguous majority for the Ulster Unionist Party, this one gave more complex results.

The Ulster Unionists were divided over a variety of reforms introduced by Prime Minister Terence O'Neill and this division spilled over into the election with official Ulster Unionist candidates standing either in support of or opposition to O'Neill and a number of Unofficial Unionists, who were independent pro O'Neill candidates standing against unsupportive Official Unionist candidates. The results left O'Neill without a clear majority for his reforms and he resigned not long afterwards.

Nationalist Realignment

The Nationalist Party that had for a long time represented the bulk of the Catholic minority faced strong challenges and two of its leading figures were defeated. The leader Eddie McAteer lost Foyle to the independent John Hume and Paddy Gormley lost Mid Londonderry to the independent Ivan Cooper. Both Hume and Cooper would go on to form the Social Democratic and Labour Party which would take over the Nationalist mantle.

Protestant Unionist Party

Ian Paisley's Protestant Unionist Party that was broadly opposed to O'Neill's agenda on civil rights, put up a number of candidates. Although none of them were returned O'Neill was almost defeated by Paisley in Bannside a seat that had not been contested since 1949. Paisley gained the seat at a 1970 by-election.

Unofficial Unionists

Due to the local selection rules a number of anti-O'Neill candidates managed to get reselected or selected for seats. Many of them were opposed by 17 unofficial Unionist candidates supporting O'Neill, often backed by the New Ulster Movement. They won three seats - Belfast Clifton (where the sitting Unionist MP for was forbidden by a court order from referring to himself as the official Unionist candidate because of a violation of the rules at his selection meeting); Bangor and Belfast Willowfield.

Results

Ulster Unionist Party}};"UUP	Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)}};"Nationalist	Independent Unionist}};"UU	Independent (politician)}};"Ind	Northern Ireland Labour Party}};"NILP	Republican Labour Party}};"Rep

|votes % = 2.4 |seats % = 3.8 |plus/minus = +1.4 |votes % = 1.3 |seats % = |plus/minus = -2.6 |votes % = 0.5 |seats % = |plus/minus = +0.5 |}

Electorate: 912,087 (778,031 in contested seats); Turnout: 71.9% (559,087).

Votes summary

Seats summary

Notes

References

Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results

References

(3 August 2020). "John Hume in February 1969: A 36 year political career is launched". Derry Journal.
"History repeating as the Union itself stands at the ‘crossroads’".
"CAIN: Politics: Elections: Stormont General Election (NI) Monday 24 February 1969".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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