2019 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on 12 December 2019 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons, including 18 seats in Northern Ireland. 1,293,971 people were eligible to vote, up 51,273 from the 2017 general election. 62.09% of eligible voters turned out, down 3.5 percentage points from the last general election.[1] For the first time in history, traditional Irish nationalist parties won more seats than traditional unionist parties.

For broader coverage of this topic, see Elections in Northern Ireland.
2019 United Kingdom general election
(Northern Ireland)
12 December 2019 (2019-12-12)
All 18 Northern Ireland seats to the House of Commons
Turnout62.1% ()
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Arlene Foster Mary Lou McDonald Colum Eastwood
Party DUP Sinn Féin SDLP
Leader since 17 December 2015 10 February 2018 14 November 2015
Leader's seat Did not stand[lower-alpha 1] Did not stand[lower-alpha 2] Foyle
Last election 10 seats, 36.0% 7 seats, 29.4% 0 seats, 11.7%
Seats won 8 7 2
Seat change 2 2
Popular vote 244,127 181,853 118,737
Percentage 30.6% 22.8% 14.9%
Swing 5.4% 6.7% 3.1%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Naomi Long[lower-alpha 3] Steve Aiken[lower-alpha 4]
Party Alliance UUP
Leader since 26 October 2016 9 November 2019
Leader's seat Ran in Belfast East (lost) Ran in East Antrim (lost)
Last election 0 seats, 7.9% 0 seats, 10.3%
Seats won 1 0
Seat change 1
Popular vote 134,115 93,123
Percentage 16.8% 11.7%
Swing 8.8% 1.4%
A map presenting the results of the election, by party of the MP elected from each constituency.

Electoral system

MPs were elected in 18 Single Member constituencies by first-past-the-post.

Background

The election was called on 29 October 2019 under the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019. At the 2017 election, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) lost all of their seats. The DUP won 10 seats, Sinn Féin won 7 seats, and Independent Unionist Sylvia Hermon was also elected. The election ended in a hung parliament, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) signed a confidence and supply agreement with the Conservative Party.[2]

In 2018, Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone, Barry McElduff, resigned after a social media post he made caused controversy regarding perceived sectarianism on the Kingsmill massacre.[3] The party won a by-election later, but with a plurality instead of a majority.[4]

In the 2019 European Parliament election, Sinn Féin, the DUP, and the Alliance Party each won a seat.[5]

Participating parties

102 candidates stood in the general election.[6] The Alliance Party was the only party standing in all 18 seats. The DUP stood in 17 seats, the UUP in 16, and both Sinn Féin and the SDLP in 15 seats. Aontú stood in 7 seats, the Northern Ireland Conservatives in 4, the Green Party of Northern Ireland in 3, and People Before Profit and the UK Independence Party in 2. Traditional Unionist Voice did not stand in this election. There were also three independent candidates. Sylvia Hermon did not contest this election.[7]

Sinn Féin operates on an all-Ireland basis. Their MPs in Westminster practice abstentionism, meaning they do not take their seats in the House of Commons. Aontú, who like Sinn Féin are an abstentionist all-Ireland party, was formed in January 2019.[8][9]

Opinion polling
Main article: Opinion polling for the 2019 United Kingdom general election § Northern Ireland
Pollster/client(s) Date(s)
conducted		 Sample
size		 DUP SF SDLP UUP Alliance Green Other Lead
2019 general election 12 Dec 2019 – 30.6% 22.8% 14.9% 11.7% 16.8% 0.2% 3.1%[lower-alpha 5] 7.8%
Lucid Talk/Remain United 27–30 Nov 2019 2,422 30% 25% 13% 11% 16% 0% 5% 5%
9 November 2019 Steve Aiken officially becomes leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
Lucid Talk/Remain United 30 Oct–1 Nov 2019 2,386 28% 24% 14% 9% 16% 1% 8% [lower-alpha 6] 4%
Lucid Talk 9–12 Aug 2019 2,302 29% 25% 8% 9% 21% 1% 7% 4%
21 November 2018 Clare Bailey officially becomes leader of NI Green Party
Survation/Channel 4 20 Oct–2 Nov 2018 555 31% 27% 11% 15% 12% – 4% 4%
3 May 2018 West Tyrone by-election[10]
10 Feb 2018 Mary Lou McDonald becomes leader of Sinn Féin[11]
2017 general election 8 Jun 2017 – 36.0% 29.4% 11.7% 10.3% 7.9% 0.9% 3.7% 6.6%

Results
Party[12] Seats Votes
Total Gains Losses Net +/- % seats Total votes % votes Change
DUP 8 0 2 2 44.4 244,127 30.6 5.4
Sinn Féin 7 1 1 38.9 181,853 22.8 6.7
SDLP 2 2 0 2 11.1 118,737 14.9 3.1
Alliance 1 1 0 1 5.6 134,115 16.8 8.8
UUP 0 0 0 0 93,123 11.7 1.4
Aontú 0 0 0 0 9,814 1.2 N/A
People Before Profit 0 0 0 0 7,526 0.9 0.2
NI Conservatives 0 0 0 0 5,433 0.7 0.2
Green (NI) 0 0 0 0 1,996 0.2 0.7
Independent 0 0 1 1 0 1,687 0.2 1.8
UKIP 0 0 0 0 623 0.1 N/A
799,034 61.8 3.6

Results by constituency
Constituency[13] Eligible electorate Votes polled Invalid votes Turnout (%) Alliance DUP SDLP SF UUP Others
Belfast East66,24542,61916964.3419,05520,874did not standdid not stand2,516did not stand
Belfast North72,22549,42538868.434,82421,135did not stand23,078did not standdid not stand
Belfast South69,98447,52717267.916,78611,67827,079did not stand1,259550
Belfast West65,64438,98820659.391,8825,2202,98520,866did not stand7,829
East Antrim64,83037,43117057.7410,16516,8719022,1205,4751,728
East Londonderry69,24639,49519357.045,92115,7656,1586,1283,5991,731
Fermanagh and South Tyrone72,84851,08732470.132,650did not stand3,44621,98621,929751
Foyle74,34647,37022663.721,2674,77326,8819,7711,0883,364
Lagan Valley75,73545,58918460.213,08719,5861,7581,0988,6061,270
Mid Ulster70,44944,96834863.833,52610,9366,38420,4732,611690
Newry and Armagh81,22651,12034162.944,21111,0009,44920,2874,2041,628
North Antrim77,13444,35530457.56,23120,8602,9435,6328,139246
North Down67,09940,84217260.8718,35815,390did not standdid not stand4,9361,959
South Antrim71,71143,18821460.238,19015,1492,2884,88712,460did not stand
South Down79,17549,97120963.116,9167,61914,51716,1373,3071,266
Strangford66,92837,66917556.2810,63417,7051,9945554,0232,574
Upper Bann82,88750,34830360.746,43320,5014,62312,2916,197did not stand
West Tyrone66,25941,37518962.443,9799,0667,33016,5442,7741,493
Total1,293,971803,3674,28762.09134,115244,128118,737181,85393,12327,079

Vote summary
Popular vote
DUP
 
 30.6%
Sinn Féin
 
 22.8%
Alliance
 
 16.8%
SDLP
 
 14.9%
UUP
 
 11.7%
Aontú
 
 1.2%
PBP
 
 0.9%
NI Cons
 
 0.7%
Greens
 
 0.2%
Other
 
 0.3%
Parliamentary seats
DUP
 
 44.4%
Sinn Féin
 
 38.9%
SDLP
 
 11.1%
Alliance
 
 5.6%

Footnotes
  1. An MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
  2. Mary Lou McDonald is a TD in Dáil Éireann for Dublin Central.
  3. An MEP for Northern Ireland.
  4. An MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Antrim.
  5. Aontú (1.2%), People Before Profit (0.9%) and the Conservative Party (0.7%) outpolled the Greens despite not being measured separately in pre-election polling.
  6. Including 1% for Traditional Unionist Voice, 1% for People Before Profit and 3% for Sylvia Hermon.

References
  1. "UK Parliamentary Election 2019 - Turnout". EONI. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  2. Maidment, Jack (26 June 2017). "DUP agrees £1bn deal with Conservatives to prop up Theresa May's minority Government". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  3. "Barry McElduff resigns as MP for West Tyrone". BBC News. 15 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  4. "SF's Begley wins West Tyrone by-election". BBC News. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  5. Leahy, Pat; Kelly, Fiach; Bray, Jennifer (28 May 2019). "Elections 2019: Greens the big winners while Sinn Féin slumps". The Irish Times. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  6. "General Election 2019: Northern Ireland candidates". BBC News. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  7. "Sylvia Hermon to stand down as MP for North Down". BBC News. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  8. "Aontu in battle to 'take thousands of votes' off Sinn Fein and SDLP in Foyle". Derry Daily. 10 November 2019.
  9. "General Election 2019: Republican pro-life party Aontu out to give SF bloody nose in a number of seats". Belfast Telegraph. 9 November 2019.
  10. "By-elections since the 2017 General Election". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  11. "Mary Lou McDonald confirmed as new leader of Sinn Féin". Irish Times. 20 January 2018. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  12. "Results of the 2019 General Election in Northern Ireland". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  13. "UK Parliamentary Election 2019 - Turnout". EONI. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.

Manifestos:

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.