Where and what is 'South Antrim'?

South Antrim consists of all of the Borough of Antrim and two-thirds of the Borough of Newtownabbey. It stretches from the Northern suburbs of Belfast at Upper Monkstown over twenty five miles westwards to Toome on the River Bann, as well as the North-Eastern portion of Lough Neagh. There are nearly 70,000 electors.

More than 25,000 are in the Belfast suburban communities of Glengormley, Carnmoney, Mallusk and Mossley, with the other main concentrations of population being in Antrim town, with 15,000 electors, and Ballyclare, with 8,000. The constituency also includes the towns and villages of Ballynure, Ballyrobert, Crumlin, Doagh, Mallusk, Parkgate, Randalstown, Straid, Templepatrick and Toome.

South Antrim Map image supplied by Ordnance Survey Election Maps Service.

Image reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Representation and elections

The constituency returns one member of the House of Commons in London (by the X vote) and six members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (by the superior method of proportional representation by the Single Transferable Vote). Electors number the candidates in order of their choice, 1, 2, 3, etc and candidates achieve election by reaching the quota of one-seventh of the votes cast. As well as first preference votes, candidates can benefit from transfers from the elimination of those candidates with the fewest votes or from surplus votes held by candidates who have already been elected.

Who represents South Antrim?

The current MP (William McCrea) a member of the DUP, won the Westminster seat from David Burnside of the UUP in 2005, having also held it briefly from the September 2000 by-election until 2001. Assembly representation is shared between the five main parties.

In 1998, in addition to David Ford, South Antrim returned Jim Wilson (UUP), Wilson Clyde (DUP), Norman Boyd (UKUP, later NIUP), Donovan McClelland (SDLP) and Duncan Shipley Dalton (UUP). In 2003, Duncan Dalton stepped down and was replaced by David Burnside, Paul Girvan (DUP) captured Norman Boyd's seat and Thomas Burns beat Donovan McClelland for the SDLP seat.

In 2003, David Ford's seat was directly targeted by Sinn Fein, who fielded a leading North Belfast member, Martin Meehan. Although Martin Meehan started ahead of David, by the final stage of the count, David was ahead by the narrow margin of 181 votes. He had picked up over 1500 votes from other candidates of all parties during the count.

At the most recent election, on 7 March 2007, David Ford's vote increased significantly and he was elected third of the six MLAs (previously sixth in both 1998 and 2003). Mitchell McLaughlin (Sinn Fein) was elected first, taking the seat that had eluded Martin Meehan. William McCrea MP (DUP) was a close second. Behind David Ford came David Burnside (UUP), the DUP's Trevor Clarke and Thomas Burns.

Both Wilson Clyde and Paul Girvan were deselected by the DUP and Jim Wilson retired, leaving David Ford the senior representative of South Antrim at Stormont.

Working for South Antrim

On constituency matters, MLAs have frequently worked together in support of local people. There are also strong links with the two local Councils and many community groups within South Antrim.

Northern Ireland election results

Full details of recent elections can be seen on the Northern Ireland elections web site maintained by my (studiously impartial) friend Nicholas Whyte. An analysis of South Antrim, with (slightly inaccurate) predictions for the 2007 contest is available from 'Sammy Morse'.

Northern Ireland Elections: South Antrim.

Sammy Morse's take on the constituency.