December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election

10 December 2021
All 90 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly 46 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	57.62% ( 9.46 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader KalvinLokan HumanoidTyphoon22 Lady Aya Party UWP Sinn Féin SDLP Leader's seat Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone North Belfast Armagh, Fermanagh and Omagh Last election 20 seats, 22.05% 35 seats, 38.23% 16 seats, 18.97% Seats before 20 35 16 Seats won 29 22 19 Seat change 9 13 3 Popular vote 334,416 281,706 238,891 Percentage 31.23% 26.31% 22.31%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Phyrik2222 LamentablyLuscious Metesbilge Party UUP C!NI APNI Leader's seat County Antrim Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone North Down Coastal Last election 19 seats, 20.80% Did not stand Did not stand Seats before 12 7 0 Seats won 11 4 4 Seat change 1 3 4 Popular vote 122,608 46,180 39,526 Percentage 11.45% 4.31% 3.69%   Seventh party   Leader ABrokenHero Party PBP Leader's seat Lagan Valley and the Mournes Last election Did not stand Seats before 0 Seats won 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 7,561 Percentage 0.71%
First Minister and deputy First Minister before election HumanoidTyphoon22, (Sinn Féin) KalvinLokan, (UWP) First Minister and deputy First Minister KalvinLokan, (UWP) ARichTeaBiscuit, (Sinn Féin)

The December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Friday, 10 December 2021 to elect 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The incumbent government was a power-sharing Executive under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, with Sinn Féin as the largest party from the largest community, hence holding the position of First Minister; and the Ulster Unionist Party holding the position of deputy First Minister within the Executive.

The election was contested by the Sinn Féin, Social Democratic and Labour Party, Ulster Unionist Party, Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Coalition! NI Ulster Workers' Party, and People Before Profit, of which the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and People Before Profit did not hold seats the previous term. The election saw multiple changes over the previous one with a merger of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland with the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the re-creation of Coalition! NI, the reemergence of Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and the creation of People Before Profit.

Electoral system

90 members of the Legislative Assembly are elected from 6 different electoral regions, each electing 15 MLAs using a proportional regional list, where seats are allocated proportionally to the number of votes each party receives in an individual electoral region.

Opinion Polling

The chart below depicts regional vote opinion polls conducted for the December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election.

Results

A total of 33 candidates from seven different political parties were nominated. All parties fielded candidates in all regions, with the exception of People Before Profit only fielding one candidate in Lagan Valley and Mournes and Alliance Party of Northern Ireland not standing any candidates in Lagan Valley and Mournes and Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone North and endorsing Coalition! NI in those regions in exchange for Coalition! NI doing likewise for Alliance Party of Northern Ireland in Down Coastal and Armagh, Fermanagh and Omagh.

The result was a victory for the Ulster Workers' Party, who succeeded in gaining more seats than Sinn Féin, displacing them as First Minister and having the first Unionist First Minister since Term 7. While Sinn Féin did lose the position of First Minister and losing 13 seats, they succeeded in holding onto enough seats to stay as deputy First Minister, beating our the Social Democratic and Labour Party. While the Social Democratic and Labour Party failed to gain enough seats to become deputy First Minister, the election was a success for them, gaining 3 seats. While maybe not what they wanted, the Ulster Unionist Party lost one seat this election, a drop from the 19 they won in the June 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election with the merger of Coalition!NI, but not losing as many as some predicted. Coalition!NI saw themselves losing 3 seats, holding 4. While not allowing them to enter the Executive, the Other community saw itself achieve a symbolic and substantial win, with Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and People Before Profit winning 4 and 1 seats respectively.

The election was a considered a major victory for the Unionist community, as they regained the First Minister position which had not been held for nearly two years by a Unionist. Furthermore, they again gained the largest count of seats in the Assembly. It was also a substantial win for the Other community who saw representation once again in the Assembly after the merge of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland into the Social Democratic and Labour Party during the previous term had seen the end of the communities representation.

Northern Ireland

Party		Votes	Vote %	Seats	Seats %
Combined Unionist Alliance (CUA)
	Ulster Workers' Party	334,416	31.23	29	32.2
	UUP	122,608	11.45	11	12.2
Total CUA		457,024	42.68	40	44.4
Other Parties
	Sinn Féin	281,706	26.31	22	24.4
	SDLP	238,891	22.31	19	21.1
	Coalition!	46,180	4.31	4	4.4
	APNI	39,526	3.69	4	4.4
	PBP	7,561	0.71	1	1.1
Total		1,070,888	100	90	100

22

19

1

4

4

40

By constituency

Belfast

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election: Belfast
Party		Candidate	Seats	Votes	%
	UWP	Scadey	5	57,615	31.20%
	SDLP	Realbassist	3	41,288	22.4%
	Sinn Féin	HumanoidTyphoon22	3	40,197	21.8%
	UUP	FPSLover1	2	21,028	11.4%
	Coalition!	CountBrandenburg	1	11,403	6.2%
	APNI	Frost_Walker2017	1	8,261	4.5%

County Antrim

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election: County Antrim
Party		Candidate	Seats	Votes	%
	UWP	Paladox1	5	55,297	35.3%
	SDLP	Model-kyosanto	3	32,024	20.5%
	Sinn Féin	ARichTeaBiscuit	3	29,846	19.1%
	UUP	Phyrik2222	2	20,496	13.1%
	Coalition!	TomBarnaby	1	11,628	7.4%
	APNI	Rea-wakey	1	5,407	3.5%

Down Coastal

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election: Down Coastal
Party		Candidate	Seats	Votes	%
	UWP	Muffin5136	6	48,815	34.9%
	SDLP	Ohprkl	3	29,891	21.4%
	Sinn Féin	JD200256	3	25,385	18.1%
	UUP	Skullduggery12	2	20,720	14.8%
	APNI	Metesbilge	1	13,099	9.4%

Lagan Valley and Mournes

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election: Lagan Valley and Mournes
Party		Candidate	Seats	Votes	%
	UWP	ThomasT143	4	53,187	28.3%
	Sinn Féin	Faelif	4	52,439	27.9%
	SDLP	Youmaton	4	47,591	25.4%
	UUP	EruditeFellow	1	16,406	8.7%
	Coalition!	SapphireWork	1	10,509	5.6%
	PBP	ABrokenHero	1	7,561	4%

Armagh, Fermanagh and Omagh

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election: Armagh, Fermanagh and Omagh
Party		Candidate	Seats	Votes	%
	Sinn Féin	Wiredcookie1	4	55,045	27.7%
	SDLP	Lady_Aya	4	54,976	27.7%
	UWP	Sasja_Friendly	4	49,939	25.1%
	UUP	Tarkin15	2	21,651	10.9%
	APNI	Model-avery	1	12,759	6.4%

Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone North

December 2021 Northern Ireland Assembly election: Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone North
Party		Candidate	Seats	Votes	%
	Sinn Féin	Zakian3000	5	78,794	35.5%
	UWP	KalvinLokan	5	69,563	31.3%
	SDLP	Inadorable	2	33,121	14.9%
	UUP	Likelynotasquirrel	2	22,307	10%
	Coalition!	LamentablyLuscious	1	12,640	5.7%