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2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election

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Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2017
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All 90 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
46 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
  Arlene Foster Michelle O'Neill Mike Nesbitt
Leader Arlene Foster Michelle O'Neill[n 1] Mike Nesbitt
Party DUP Sinn Féin UUP
Leader since 17 December 2015 23 January 2017[n 2] 31 March 2012
Leader's seat Fermanagh & South Tyrone Mid Ulster Strangford
Last election 38 seats,[n 3] 29.2% 28 seats, 24% 16 seats, 12.6%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Colum Eastwood Naomi Long Steven Agnew
Leader Colum Eastwood Naomi Long Steven Agnew
Party SDLP Alliance Green (NI)
Leader since 14 November 2015 26 October 2016 10 January 2011
Leader's seat Foyle Belfast East North Down
Last election 12 seats, 12% 8 seats, 7% 2 seats, 2.7%
  Seventh party Eighth party
  Jim Allister
Leader Eamonn McCann[n 4] Jim Allister
Party People Before Profit TUV
Leader since N/A 7 December 2007
Leader's seat Foyle North Antrim
Last election 2 seats, 2.0% 1 seat, 3.4%
First Minister and deputy First Minister before election

Arlene Foster (DUP) &
Martin McGuinness (SF)

 First Minister and deputy First Minister

TBD

The next Northern Ireland Assembly election is to be held on 2 March 2017 to elect members (MLAs) to the Northern Ireland Assembly following the resignation of deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal. It will be the sixth election since the Assembly was re-established in 1998. It will be the first to elect 90 MLAs to the Assembly, a reduction from the previous 108.

Eight parties had MLAs in the fifth assembly: the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the Greens, People Before Profit (PBP), and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). There was also one Independent Unionist MLA.

Background

In May 2013, Theresa Villiers, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced the next Assembly election would be postponed to May 2016, and would be held at fixed intervals of five years thereafter.[3] Section 7 of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 specifies that elections will be held on the first Thursday in May on the fifth calendar year following that in which its predecessor was elected,[4] which would be 6 May 2021. However, there are several circumstances in which the Assembly can be dissolved before the date scheduled by virtue of section 31(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin), the deputy First Minister, resigned on 9 January 2017 in protest at the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal and other issues, such as the DUP's failure to support funding for inquests into killings during The Troubles and to end funding for an Irish language project. The First Minister, Arlene Foster (DUP), was in charge of the scheme in her previous ministerial position, but had refused to temporarily stand down as First Minister while an enquiry took place. Under the power-sharing arrangement, McGuinness' resignation as deputy First Minister means that Foster automatically loses office as First Minister. The DUP condemned McGuinness' resignation.

Sinn Féin had seven days, until 5 pm on 16 January 2017, in which to nominate a new deputy First Minister, but refused to do so in the Assembly plenary on 16 January.[5] As a result, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire confirmed the same day that snap elections will be held on 2 March.[6][7][8]

McGuinness subsequently announced that he would not be seeking re-election to the Assembly due to ill health and stepped down from leading the Sinn Féin group. He was replaced by Michelle O'Neill as leader of Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Membership

According to the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, each party elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly designates all of its members as belonging to the nationalist community, the unionist community, or 'other'. Important votes require cross-community support.

Following the Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, the number of seats in the Assembly has been reduced from 108 to 90 at this election. This was done by reducing the number of candidates to be elected in each constituency from six to five.[9][10]

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #2AA82C;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #F6CB2F;" data-sort-value="Alliance Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #8dc63f;" data-sort-value="Green Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E91D50;" data-sort-value="People Before Profit Alliance" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0C3A6A;" data-sort-value="Traditional Unionist Voice" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" |
Party MLAs elected in 2016 Hypothesised 2016 result
in smaller Assembly[11] 		Designation
DUP 38[n 5] 33 Unionist
Sinn Féin 28 23 Nationalist
UUP 16 11 Unionist
SDLP 12 11 Nationalist
Alliance 8 8 Other
Green (NI) 2 2 Other
People Before Profit 2 1 Other
TUV 1 1 Unionist
Independent 1 0 Unionist
Total 108 90

Candidates

Nominations opened on 27 January 2017 for the assembly election and closed on 8 February 2017.[13]

A total of 228 candidates are contesting the 90 available seats in the Assembly, a reduction from the 276 who contested the 108 seats available in 2016.[14]

The table below lists all of the nominated candidates.[15] Candidates for the same party in a constituency are listed in alphabetical order, which is the order they will appear on the ballot paper.
* indicates an incumbent MLA
** indicates the candidate is the incumbent MLA for a different constituency
^ indicates a former MLA who was not a member at the dissolution of the 2016-17 Assembly
Leaders of parties represented in the assembly at dissolution are shown in bold text

Constituency class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Democratic Unionist Party/meta/color; width:140px;"| DUP class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Sinn Féin/meta/color; width:140px;"|SF class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Ulster Unionist Party/meta/color; width:130px;"| UUP class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Social Democratic and Labour Party/meta/color; width:140px;"| SDLP class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Alliance Party of Northern Ireland/meta/color; width:150px;"| Alliance class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Traditional Unionist Voice/meta/color; width:130px;"| TUV class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Green Party of Northern Ireland/meta/color; width:120px;"| Green class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Conservative/meta/color; width:120px;"| Conservative Others
Belfast East Joanne Bunting*
David Douglas
Robin Newton*		 Mairéad O'Donnell Andy Allen* Séamas de Faoite Naomi Long*
Chris Lyttle*		 Andrew Girvin Georgina Milne Sheila Bodel John Kyle (PUP)
Jordy McKeag (Ind.)
Courtney Robinson (CCLA)
Belfast North Paula Bradley*
William Humphrey*
Nelson McCausland*		 Gerry Kelly*
Carál Ní Chuilín*		 Robert Foster Nichola Mallon* Nuala McAllister Malachai O'Hara Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston (PUP)
Fiona Ferguson (PBP)
Adam Millar (Ind.)
Gemma Weir (WP)
Belfast South Emma Pengelly*
Christopher Stalford*		 Máirtín Ó Muilleoir* Michael Henderson Naomh Gallagher
Claire Hanna*		 Paula Bradshaw*
Emmet McDonough-Brown		 John Hiddleston Clare Bailey* George Jabbour Seán Burns (CCLA)
Lily Kerr (WP)
Pádraigín Mervyn (PBP)
Belfast West Frank McCoubrey Órlaithí Flynn*
Alex Maskey*
Fra McCann*
Pat Sheehan*		 Fred Rogers Alex Attwood* Sorcha Eastwood Ellen Murray Conor Campbell (WP)
Gerry Carroll* (PBP)
Michael Collins (PBP)
East Antrim David Hilditch*
Gordon Lyons*
Stephen Ross		 Oliver McMullan* Roy Beggs, Jr.*
John Stewart		 Margaret Anne McKillop Stewart Dickson*
Danny Donnelly		 Ruth Wilson Dawn Patterson Alan Dunlop Ricky Best (Ind.)
Noel Jordan (UKIP)
Conor Sheridan (CCLA)
East Londonderry Maurice Bradley*
Adrian McQuillan*
George Robinson*		 Caoimhe Archibald*
Cathal Ó hOisín^		 William McCandless John Dallat^ Chris McCaw Jordan Armstrong Anthony Flynn David Harding Gavin Campbell (PBP)
Gerry Mullan* (Ind.)
Claire Sugden* (Ind.)
Russell Watton (PUP)
Fermanagh and South Tyrone Arlene Foster*
Maurice Morrow*		 Jemma Dolan
Michelle Gildernew*
Seán Lynch*		 Rosemary Barton* Richie McPhillips* Noreen Campbell Alex Elliott Tanya Jones Richard Dunn Donal Ó Cófaigh (CCLA)
Foyle Gary Middleton* Elisha McCallion
Raymond McCartney*		 Julia Kee Mark H. Durkan*
Colum Eastwood*		 Colm Cavanagh Shannon Downey Stuart Canning John Lindsay (CISTA)
Eamonn McCann* (PBP)
Arthur McGuinness (Ind.)
Lagan Valley Paul Givan*
Brenda Hale*
Edwin Poots*		 Peter Doran Robbie Butler*
Jenny Palmer*		 Pat Catney Trevor Lunn* Samuel Morrison Dan Barrios-O'Neill Matthew Robinson Keith Gray (Ind.)
Jonny Orr (Ind.)
Mid Ulster Keith Buchanan* Linda Dillon*
Ian Milne*
Michelle O'Neill*		 Sandra Overend* Patsy McGlone* Fay Watson Hannah Loughrin Stefan Taylor Hugh McCloy (Ind.)
Hugh Scullion (WP)
Newry and Armagh William Irwin* Cathal Boylan*
Megan Fearon*
Conor Murphy*		 Danny Kennedy* Justin McNulty* Jackie Coade Rowan Tunnicliffe Emmet Crossan (CISTA)
North Antrim Paul Frew*
Philip Logan*
Mervyn Storey*		 Philip McGuigan* Robin Swann* Connor Duncan Patricia O'Lynn Jim Allister*
Timothy Gaston		 Mark Bailey Monica Digney (Ind.)
Adam McBride (Ind.)
North Down Gordon Dunne*
Alex Easton*		 Kieran Maxwell Alan Chambers*
William Cudworth		 Caoímhe McNeill Stephen Farry* Steven Agnew* Frank Shivers Chris Carter (Ind.)
Melanie Kennedy (Ind.)
Gavan Reynolds (Ind.)
South Antrim Pam Cameron*
Trevor Clarke*
Paul Girvan*		 Declan Kearney* Steve Aiken*
Adrian Cochrane-Watson^		 Roisin Lynch David Ford* Richard Cairns Eleanor Bailey Mark Logan Ivanka Antova (PBP)
David McMaster (Ind.)
South Down Jim Wells* Sinead Ennis
Chris Hazzard*		 Harold McKee* Sinead Bradley*
Colin McGrath*		 Patrick Brown Lyle Rea Hannah George Gary Hynds Patrick Clarke (Ind.)
Strangford Simon Hamilton*
Michelle McIlveen*
Peter Weir**		 Dermot Kennedy Mike Nesbitt*
Philip Smith*		 Joe Boyle Kellie Armstrong* Stephen Cooper Ricky Bamford Scott Benton Jonathan Bell* (Ind.)
Jimmy Menagh (Ind.)
Upper Bann Jonathan Buckley
Carla Lockhart*		 John O'Dowd*
Nuala Toman		 Doug Beattie*
Jo-Anne Dobson*		 Dolores Kelly^ Tara Doyle Roy Ferguson Simon Lee Ian Nichols Colin Craig (WP)
West Tyrone Thomas Buchanan* Michaela Boyle*
Declan McAleer*
Barry McElduff*		 Alicia Clarke Daniel McCrossan* Stephen Donnelly Charlie Chittick Ciaran McClean Roger Lomas Barry Brown (CISTA)
Corey French (Ind.)
Sorcha McAnespy (Ind.)
Roisin McMackin (Ind.)
Susan-Anne White (Ind.)

Gerry Mullan, who was an MLA for the SDLP before the dissolution, is standing as an independent after having been deselected by the party.[16] Jonathan Bell, who is currently suspended from the DUP is also standing as an independent.[17]

Members not seeking re-election

MLA Party Constituency
Sydney Anderson

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" |

DUP Upper Bann[18]
Sammy Douglas

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" |

DUP Belfast East[19]
Alastair Ross

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" |

DUP East Antrim[20]
Martin McGuinness

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" |

Sinn Féin Foyle[21]
Caitríona Ruane

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" |

Sinn Féin South Down[22]
Catherine Seeley

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" |

Sinn Féin Upper Bann[23]
Ross Hussey

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #48A5EE;" data-sort-value="Ulster Unionist Party" |

UUP West Tyrone[24]

Opinion polling

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Democratic Unionist Party/meta/color; width:90px;"| DUP class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Sinn Féin/meta/color; width:90px;"|SF class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Ulster Unionist Party/meta/color; width:90px;"| UUP class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Social Democratic and Labour Party/meta/color; width:90px;"| SDLP class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Alliance Party of Northern Ireland/meta/color; width:90px;"| Alliance class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Traditional Unionist Voice/meta/color; width:90px;"| TUV class="unsortable" style="background:Template:Green Party of Northern Ireland/meta/color; width:90px;"| Green class="unsortable" style="background:Template:People Before Profit Alliance/meta/color; width:90px;"| PBP Others
26 – 28 January 2017 Lucid Talk 1,580 25.9% 25.1% 13.9% 12.4% 8.9% 4.3% 3.9% 2.7% 3.1%
5 May 2016 Assembly Election Results 703,744 29.2% 24.0% 12.6% 12.0% 7.0% 3.4% 2.7% 2.0% 7.1%

Footnotes

  1. ^ Sinn Féin's leader is Gerry Adams, but Michelle O'Neill is the leader of the party in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
  2. ^ Sinn Féin leader in the Northern Ireland Assembly.[1]
  3. ^ The last election was for an Assembly with 108 seats.
  4. ^ The PBP has a collective leadership. McCann is registered as leader with the Electoral Commission.[2]
  5. ^ Jonathan Bell was suspended from the DUP in December 2016 as he gave a media interview without party permission over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Michelle O'Neill named as NI replacement for McGuinness". RTÉ. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  2. ^ "View Registration - The Electoral Commission".
  3. ^ "Northern Ireland Assembly elections put back to 2016". BBC News. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  4. ^ "Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  5. ^ "Sinn Féin declines to make Stormont nomination". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  6. ^ "Martin McGuinness resigns as NI deputy first minister". BBC. 10 January 2017.
  7. ^ Connolly, Maeve. "Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigns".
  8. ^ "McGuinness quits: What happens next in Northern Ireland?". BBC. 9 January 2017.
  9. ^ "Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016".
  10. ^ "North looking at a new election landscape".
  11. ^ Whyte, Nicholas (22 December 2016). "If the 2016 Assembly election had had five seats per constituency…".
  12. ^ http://www.itv.com/news/utv/2016-12-18/jonathan-bell-suspended-from-dup/
  13. ^ "Northern Ireland Assembly Election March 2017". Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  14. ^ "Number of candidates by constituency". EONI. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  15. ^ "Statements of Persons Nominated". EONI. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  16. ^ http://www.derryjournal.com/news/election-2017-former-sdlp-mla-gerry-mullan-to-run-as-independent-in-election-1-7798311
  17. ^ "Statement of Persons Nominated - Strangford". EONI. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  18. ^ "Anderson stepping down". Lurgan Mail. 18 January 2017.
  19. ^ McCormack, Jayne (24 January 2017). "DUP MLA Sammy Douglas tells assembly he's standing down from politics". Twitter. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  20. ^ "DUP MLA Ross announces decision to quit politics". Belfast Telegraph. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  21. ^ "Martin McGuinness: Ex-deputy first minster will not stand in NI election". BBC. 19 January 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  22. ^ "Sinn Féin's Ruane will not stand for election". BBC News. 15 January 2017.
  23. ^ "Sinn Féin's Catherine Seeley will not stand in next Assembly election". ITV News. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  24. ^ Devenport, Mark. "UUP's @RossHusseyMLA says he is retiring from politics". Twitter. Retrieved 23 January 2017.

Manifestoes

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