Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
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Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003 All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
26 November 2003
Leader		Ian Paisley	Gerry Adams	David Trimble
Party		Democratic Unionist	Sinn Féin	Ulster Unionist
Leader since		30 September 1971	13 November 1983	8 September 1995
Leader's seat		North Antrim	Belfast West	Upper Bann
Last election		20 seats, 18.5%	18 seats, 16.7%	28 seats (21.3%)
Seats won		30	24	27
Seat change		+10	+6	-1
Popular vote		177,944	162,758	156,931
Percentage		27.8%	26.2%	22.7%
		Fourth Party	Fifth Party
Leader		Mark Durkan	David Ford
Party		Social Democratic and Labour	Alliance
Leader since		10 November 2001	6 October 2001
Leader's seat		Foyle	South Antrim
Last election		24 seats (22.0%)	6 seats (5.6%)
Seats won		18	6
Seat change		-6	0
Popular vote		117,547	25,372
Percentage		17.0%	3.7%
Incumbent First Minister Suspended First Minister-Elect Suspended To Be Determined

Northern Ireland
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Assembly MLA Committees List of Acts Members: 2007 - 2003 - 1998 Elections: 2007 - 2003 - 1998 Northern Ireland Executive First Minister: Peter Robinson Deputy First Minister: Martin McGuinness Departments Executives: First - Suspended - Second Northern Ireland Policing Board Parades Commission
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom Parliament Committees: Affairs - Grand Members: Commons - Lords - Privy Council Elections: 2005 United Kingdom Government Northern Ireland Office Secretary of State • Direct Rule
In the European Union
European Parliament MEP Members: 2004 - 1999 Elections: 2004 - 1999
Related political parties
Designated Unionist Democratic Unionist Party Ulster Unionist Party Progressive Unionist Party Conservatives Traditional Unionist Voice Designated Nationalist Sinn Féin Social Democratic and Labour Party Fianna Fáil Designated Other Alliance Party Green Party
Related bodies
North/South Ministerial Council British-Irish Council British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference Civic Forum for Northern Ireland
See also
St Andrews Agreement (2006) Belfast Agreement (1998) Segregation in Northern Ireland Elections in Northern Ireland Constituencies Political parties
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The second elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which at the time of the elections had been suspended for just over a year, were held on Thursday, November 26, 2003. Six members were elected by Single Transferable Vote from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, giving a total of 108 MLAs, or Members of the Legislative Assembly. The elections were contested by 18 parties, and a number of independent candidates.

The elections were originally planned for May 2003,^[1] but were delayed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.^[2]

Political Parties

On the unionist side, the Democratic Unionist Party gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller Unionist parties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes. Despite slipping to third place in first preference votes the Ulster Unionist Party actually increased their vote slightly and had a net loss of only one seat. Shortly after the election three Ulster Unionist MLAs, Jeffrey Donaldson, Nora Beare and Arlene Foster, defected to the Democratic Unionists.

On the nationalist side, Sinn Féin saw a big increase in their vote, gaining six seats at the net expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

The minor parties all saw a significant fall in their support. The Alliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote almost halving, the Women's Coalition, United Unionist Coalition and Northern Ireland Unionist Party were all wiped out, and the Progressive Unionist Party and UK Unionist Party had just one seat each.

The biggest surprise of the election came in West Tyrone with the election of the independent Dr. Kieran Deeny, campaigning on the single issue of hospital provision in Omagh.

Note

Several sitting MLAs stood under a different label to the one they had used in 1998. Some had failed to be selected by their parties to stand and so stood as independents, whilst others had changed parties during the course of the assembly. Most of these realignments occurred within the unionist parties, with several defections between existing parties and two new parties being formed - the United Unionist Coalition (formed by the three MLAs elected as independent unionists, though one later joined the Democratic Unionist Party) and the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (formed by four of the five MLAs elected as the UK Unionist Party, though one later left them, joined the Democratic Unionists for a period but contested the election as an independent unionist). Neither the United Unionist Assembly Party nor the Northern Ireland Unionists won any seats in the 2003 election.

Results

All parties with over 1,000 votes shown.

SOURCE: ARK website[1]

See also

• Northern Ireland Assembly

References