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1986 Northern Ireland by-elections

By-elections held in January 1986

Field	Value
election_name	1986 Northern Ireland by-elections
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1983 United Kingdom general election
previous_year	1983
next_election	1987 United Kingdom general election
next_year	1987
seats_for_election	15 of 17 Northern Irish seats
in the United Kingdom Parliament
election_date	23 January 1986
party1	Ulster Unionist Party
seats1	10
seat_change1	1
popular_vote1	302,198
percentage1	51.7%
swing1	13.1%
party2	Democratic Unionist Party
seats2	3
seat_change2
popular_vote2	85,239
percentage2	23.0%
swing2	5.5%
party4	Social Democratic and Labour Party
seats4	1
seat_change4	1
popular_vote4	70,917
percentage4	12.1%
swing4	3.1%
party5	Ulster Popular Unionist Party
seats5	1
seat_change5
popular_vote5	30,793
percentage5	5.3%
swing5	1.9%
map_image	Map of the 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections.svg
map_size	400px
map_caption	Left map shows the % of the vote received by resigning unionist anti-agreement candidates.
Right map shows the % of the vote received by pro-agreement candidates.
Bottom map shows the winning party by constituency - in all constituencies but Armagh and Newry, resigning unionist candidates were re-elected.

in the United Kingdom Parliament

Right map shows the % of the vote received by pro-agreement candidates. Bottom map shows the winning party by constituency - in all constituencies but Armagh and Newry, resigning unionist candidates were re-elected.

The 1986 Northern Ireland by-elections were fifteen by-elections held on 23 January 1986, to fill vacancies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom caused by the resignation in December 1985 of all sitting Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs). The MPs, from the Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Popular Unionist Party, did this to highlight their opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, signed the month before.

Each of the Unionist parties agreed not to contest seats previously held by the others, and each outgoing MP stood for re-election. 14 of the 15 were re-elected, often with large margins. The sole exception was in the Newry and Armagh by-election, where Seamus Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party unseated Jim Nicholson (UUP).

Other candidates

Of the two Northern Ireland seats not held by unionists, Foyle was held by the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), while Belfast West was held by the republican party Sinn Féin. These MPs did not resign and their seats were not contested.

The SDLP and Sinn Féin regarded the resignations as a publicity stunt, and were reluctant to take part in the resulting by-elections. In the event, they contested only the seats which they believed to have an anti-unionist majority.

The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland instructed its branches to nominate a candidate for each by-election, but many were reluctant, and ultimately, the party stood in only five seats. The small Workers' Party stood in nine seats.

It appeared that the incumbent would be the only candidate in four constituencies. This would have produced the first uncontested elections for the House of Commons since the Armagh by-election of 1954. In order to ensure that there was a contest and that the Unionists would be able to demonstrate their point, Wesley Robert Williamson changed his name by deed poll to "Peter Barry", Peter Barry being Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ireland. "Peter Barry" stood in these four constituencies under the label "For the Anglo-Irish Agreement", allowing a contest, but did not campaign.

The unusual circumstances led this to be the greatest number of UK parliamentary by-elections held on a single day.

Results

Aggregate results

The aggregated results for all constituencies are shown below. Changes are compared to those for the 15 constituencies in the 1983 general election.

|- |- style="text-align:center; background-color:#F2F2F2;" ! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Political party ! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" rowspan=2 | Leader ! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" rowspan=2 | Position ! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" rowspan=2 | Candidates ! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" colspan=5 | MPs ! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" colspan=3 | Votes |- style="text-align:center; background-color:#F2F2F2;"

data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party"
data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party"
-
data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party"
-
data-sort-value="Sinn Féin"
-
data-sort-value="Alliance Party of Northern Ireland"
-
data-sort-value="Ulster Popular Unionist Party"
-
data-sort-value="Workers' Party (Ireland)"
-

For the Anglo-Irish Agreement
- class="unsortable"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" colspan=4
!colspan=6
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
- class="unsortable" style="background-color:#F2F2F2
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" colspan=4
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
- class="unsortable"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;" colspan=4
!colspan=6
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
! style="border: 1px solid #aaa;"
}

All but one of the Unionists were re-elected, many with extremely large majorities. The largest of all went to Ian Paisley in North Antrim. He won 97.4% of the vote, the highest percentage polled by any candidate in a UK by-election since the 1940 Middleton and Prestwich by-election.

The sole exception to this pattern was the Newry and Armagh by-election, where Seamus Mallon of the SDLP was able to take the seat. Former Cabinet Minister Enoch Powell was able to narrowly survive a strong challenge from the SDLP in South Down and was subsequently defeated at the following year's general election. In the western constituencies of Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and South Tyrone, the Unionist candidates were able to survive with less than 50% of the vote due to a split Nationalist vote. Both seats were gained by Sinn Féin in later elections.

The results of the fifteen by-elections were cited by Unionists as a rejection of the Agreement by the Northern Irish electorate, but did not succeed in repealing it.

Antrim

Belfast

Down

Newry and Armagh

|reg. electors = 65,142

Other constituencies

|reg. electors = 62,854 |reg. electors = 63,4854

References

"The Socialist Perspective on Northern Ireland and the Anglo-Irish Agreement". Irish Left Archive.
[http://www.election.demon.co.uk/by1983.html Results of Byelections in the 1983-87 Parliament] in the [http://www.election.demon.co.uk/election.html United Kingdom Election Results website] maintained by David Boothroyd

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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