2014 Northern Ireland local elections

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All 462 council seats
Turnout	51.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Peter Robinson Martin McGuinness Mike Nesbitt Party DUP Sinn Féin Ulster Unionist Seats won 130 105 88 Seat change 15 10 11 Popular vote 144,928 151,137 101,385 Percentage 23.1% 24.1% 16.1% Swing 4.1% 0.7% 0.9%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Alasdair McDonnell David Ford Jim Allister Party SDLP Alliance TUV Seats won 66 32 13 Seat change 1 2 10 Popular vote 85,237 41,769 28,310 Percentage 13.6% 6.7% 4.5% Swing 1.4% 0.7% 2.5%
Party with the most votes, by council and electoral area Party with the most seats, by council

Local elections were held in Northern Ireland on Thursday 22 May 2014, contesting 462 seats in all, as part of the wider local elections across the United Kingdom. The election took place on the same day as the European Parliament election.^[1] 1,243,649 people aged 18 and over were eligible to vote, and 51.3% of the electorate turned out.^[2]

Voter eligibility

All voters were required to present one piece of photographic ID in order to cast a vote at the polling station. Accepted forms of ID were an electoral identity card, an EEA photographic driving licence, a European Union member-state passport, a Translink 60+ SmartPass, a Translink Senior SmartPass, a Translink Blind Person's SmartPass or a Translink War Disabled SmartPass.^[3] Voters lacking an accepted type of photographic ID had until 9 May 2014 to apply for an electoral identity card from the Electoral Office.^[4]

Background

The elections represented a milestone in the reform of local government in Northern Ireland, as councillors were elected to 11 new councils.^[5] These operated in shadow form until Wednesday 1 April 2015, with the current 26 councils existing in parallel until then.^[1]

The 11 new councils, with links to the official lists of candidates standing ("statements of persons nominated"),^[6] are:

1. Belfast City Council (Candidates)
2. North Down and Ards District Council (Candidates)
3. Antrim and Newtownabbey District Council (Candidates)
4. Lisburn and Castlereagh District Council (Candidates)
5. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (Candidates^{[permanent dead link]})
6. Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council (Candidates)
7. Mid and East Antrim District Council (Candidates)
8. Causeway Coast and Glens District Council (Candidates)
9. Mid-Ulster District Council (Candidates)
10. Derry and Strabane District Council (Candidates)
11. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (Candidates)

The local government reorganisation and electoral administration was mandated by the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014. Nominations of election candidates closed on 29 April 2014.^[7]

The 2014 election heralds 26 councils being reduced to 11 in April 2015.

The 26 old local government districts

The 11 new local government districts

Results

Because these elections were contested with new electoral boundaries, the results are not directly comparable with those of the last election. However, psephologist Nicholas Whyte has calculated a baseline by which to judge the parties' relative performance.^[8] This baseline is used in the following tables.

Largest Party by Council

Results by Council

Belfast

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Results by party

Party		Councillors			% of councillors			First preference votes			% of FP votes
		2011 (notional)[9]	2014	+/-	2011 (notional)	2014	+/-	2011[23]	2014[24]	+/-	2011	2014	+/-
	DUP	145	130	15	31.4%	28.1%	3.3%	179,436	144,928	34,508	27.2%	23.1%	4.1%
	Sinn Féin	115	105	10	24.9%	22.7%	2.2%	163,712	151,137	12,575	24.8%	24.1%	0.7%
	Ulster Unionist	77	88	11	16.7%	19.0%	2.3%	100,643	101,385	742	15.2%	16.1%	0.9%
	SDLP	67	66	1	14.5%	14.2%	0.3%	99,325	85,237	14,088	15.0%	13.6%	1.4%
	Alliance	34	32	2	7.4%	6.9%	0.5%	48,859	41,769	7,090	7.4%	6.7%	0.7%
	TUV	3	13	10	0.6%	2.8%	2.2%	13,079	28,310	15,231	2.0%	4.5%	2.5%
	PUP	1	4	3	0.2%	0.8%	0.6%	3,858	12,753	8,895	0.6%	2.0%	1.4%
	Green (NI)	1	4	3	0.2%	0.8%	0.6%	6,317	5,515	802	1.0%	0.8%	0.2%
	UKIP	1	3	2	0.2%	0.6%	0.4%	2,550	9,311	6,761	0.4%	1.4%	1.0%
	NI21	0	1	1	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0	11,495	11,495	0.0%	1.8%	1.8%
	People Before Profit	0	1	1	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	1,721	1,923	202	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
	NI Conservatives	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		1,321	2,527	1,206	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
	éirígí	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		2,062	1,756	306	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
	Workers' Party	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		760	985	225	0.1	0.2%	0.1%
	Fermanagh Against Fracking	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		0	555	555	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
	Republican Network for Unity	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		0	502	502	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
	Community Partnership	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		800	388	412	0.1	0.1%	0.0%
	Socialist Party	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		682	272	410	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
	BNP	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		491	174	317	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
	Democracy First	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		0	173	173	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
	Others	0	0		0.0%	0.0%		2,142	0	2,142	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
	Independent	18	15	3	3.9%	3.2%	0.7%	32,151	26,682	5,469	4.9%	4.2%	0.7%
Total		462	462		100%	100%		660,631	627,777	32,854	100%	100%

Councils

Antrim and Newtownabbey

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon

Belfast

Causeway Coast and Glens

Derry and Strabane

Fermanagh and Omagh

Lisburn and Castlereagh

Mid and East Antrim

Mid Ulster

Newry, Mourne and Down