1989 Down District Council election

Main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1989

Elections to Down District Council were held on 17 May 1989 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 23 councillors.

1989 Down District Council election

17 May 1989 (1989-05-17)
All 23 seats to Down District Council 12 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party SDLP UUP DUP Seats won 12 8 2 Seat change 2 1 1   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Alliance Sinn Féin Workers' Party Seats won 1 0 0 Seat change 1 2 1

Election results

Down District Council Election Result 1989

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SDLP	12	2	0	2	52.2	49.2	12,227	7.6
	UUP	8	1	0	1	34.8	31.1	7,716	0.8
	DUP	2	0	1	1	8.7	8.5	2,110	3.7
	Alliance	1	1	0	1	4.3	2.2	534	3.0
	Sinn Féin	0	0	2	2	0.0	4.8	1,194	1.7
	Workers' Party	0	0	1	1	0.0	1.6	393	2.6
	Ind. Unionist	0	0	0	0	0.0	1.4	351	0.8
	Independent Labour	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.8	193	0.8
	Green (NI)	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.4	107	New

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

Results of the Down District Council election, 1989
by district

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	SDLP		UUP		DUP		Alliance		Others
Ballynahinch	45.3	2	36.1	2	13.8	1	0.0	0	4.8	0	5
Downpatrick	65.1	5	14.9	1	0.0	0	7.2	1	12.8	0	7
Newcastle	54.2	4	28.1	2	6.9	0	0.0	0	10.8	0	6
Rowallane	26.9	1	50.7	3	16.1	1	0.0	0	6.3	0	5
Total	49.2	12	31.1	8	8.5	2	2.2	1	9.0	0	23

District results

Ballynahinch

1985: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1989: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1985-1989 Change: No change

Ballynahinch - 5 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SDLP	Patrick Toman	21.33%	1,222
	UUP	James Cochrane*	21.01%	1,204
	SDLP	James Magee*	17.19%	985
	UUP	Walter Lyons	15.08%	864	865.54	1,053.91
	DUP	Thomas Poole*	13.79%	790	791.98	848.47	935.26	967.26
	SDLP	Patrick King	6.77%	388	630.88	631.51	632.17	750.17
	Sinn Féin	Patrick McGreevy	2.97%	170	180.12	180.12	180.34
	Green (NI)	Philip Allen	1.87%	107	109.2	111.51	115.8
Electorate: 8,529   Valid: 5,730 (67.18%)   Spoilt: 126   Quota: 956   Turnout: 5,856 (68.66%)

Downpatrick

1985: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Workers' Party
1989: 5 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance
1985-1989 Change: SDLP and Alliance gain from Sinn Féin and Workers' Party

Downpatrick - 7 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	SDLP	Dermot Curran*	16.09%	1,198
	UUP	Samuel McCartney*	14.91%	1,110
	SDLP	John Ritchie*	11.93%	888	918.59	927.23	959.23
	SDLP	Sean Quinn*	10.64%	792	823.74	832.38	892.86	983.86
	SDLP	Malachi Curran	9.60%	715	803.55	807.39	854.04	926.81	938.01
	SDLP	John Doris	9.50%	707	744.26	750.98	787.55	845.7	870.5
	Alliance	Michael Healy	7.17%	534	543.89	665.17	744.33	773.88	779.48
	SDLP	Mary Breen	7.36%	548	596.53	600.69	645.47	714.39	725.59
	Sinn Féin	Geraldine Ritchie*	7.35%	547	554.36	555.32	595.88
	Workers' Party	Monica Hynds	2.87%	214	217.45	231.21
	Independent Labour	William Hampton	2.59%	193	197.14	204.82
Electorate: 11,698   Valid: 7,446 (63.65%)   Spoilt: 153   Quota: 931   Turnout: 7,599 (64.96%)

Newcastle

1985: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP
1989: 4 x SDLP, 2 x UUP
1985-1989 Change: SDLP and UUP gain from Sinn Féin and DUP

Newcastle - 6 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	UUP	Gerald Douglas*	22.00%	1,329
	SDLP	Michael Boyd*	21.04%	1,271
	SDLP	Eamon O'Neill*	18.09%	1,093
	SDLP	Peter Fitzpatrick	8.97%	542	546.32	762.14	792.46	910.9
	UUP	William Brown*	6.06%	366	761.28	765.9	781.42	782.26	1,151.26
	SDLP	Cathal O'Baoill	6.11%	369	376.56	521.43	588.71	665.15	669.72	679.72
	Sinn Féin	Sean Fitzpatrick	7.89%	477	477.36	491.22	511.87	534.13	534.85	534.85
	DUP	John Finlay	6.89%	416	465.68	466.34	470.7	471.33
	Workers' Party	Henry Robinson	2.96%	179	183.32	199.16
Electorate: 9,641   Valid: 6,042 (62.67%)   Spoilt: 166   Quota: 864   Turnout: 6,208 (64.39%)

Rowallane

1985: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1989: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1985-1989 Change: No change

Rowallane - 5 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie*	26.91%	1,509
	UUP	Samuel Osborne*	23.58%	1,322
	UUP	Albert Colmer	13.93%	781	915	1,104.9
	UUP	William Biggerstaff*	13.20%	740	892	969.4
	DUP	William Dick*	11.63%	652	678	717.3	779.1	1,013.1
	Ind. Unionist	William Walker	6.26%	351	413	461.9	480.8	488.8
	DUP	William Greer	4.49%	252	311	334.4	371.3
Electorate: 8,574   Valid: 5,607 (65.40%)   Spoilt: 106   Quota: 935   Turnout: 5,713 (66.63%)