2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election

2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election

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All 108 seats to the Northern Ireland Assembly
Turnout	55.7% (6.6)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Peter Robinson Martin McGuinness [a] Tom Elliott Party DUP Sinn Féin UUP Leader since 31 May 2008 8 May 2007 22 September 2010 Leader's seat Belfast East Mid Ulster Fermanagh and South Tyrone Last election 36 seats, 30.1% 28 seats, 26.2% 18 seats, 14.9% Seats won 38 29 16 Seat change 2 1 2 Popular vote 198,436 178,224 87,531 Percentage 30.0% 26.9% 13.2% Swing 0.1% 0.7% 1.7%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Margaret Ritchie David Ford Jim Allister Party SDLP Alliance TUV Leader since 7 February 2010 6 October 2001 7 December 2007 Leader's seat South Down South Antrim North Antrim Last election 16 seats, 15.2% 7 seats, 5.2% Not established Seats won 14 8 1 Seat change 2 1 1 Popular vote 94,286 50,875 16,480 Percentage 14.2% 7.7% 2.5% Swing 1.0% 2.5% New party   Seventh party   Leader Steven Agnew Party Green (NI) Leader since 10 January 2011 Leader's seat North Down Last election 1 seat, 1.7% Seats won 1 Seat change 0 Popular vote 6,031 Percentage 0.9% Swing 0.8%
Seats won by each party and combined first preference vote share of the largest party. Break down of each party and sectarian camp's seats in constituencies Election results. Voters elect 6 assembly members from the 18 constituencies.
First Minister and deputy First Minister before election Peter Robinson (DUP) & Martin McGuinness (SF) First Minister and deputy First Minister after election Peter Robinson (DUP) & Martin McGuinness (SF)

The 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election took place on Thursday, 5 May, following the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Assembly at midnight on 24 March 2011. It was the fourth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998.

It was held on the same day as elections for Northern Ireland's 26 local councils, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections, a number of local elections in England and the United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. As in the past, the 2011 election to the Assembly was conducted using the single transferable vote (STV) system of proportional representation. The 108 seats were contested in 18 constituencies by 218 candidates, including 15 independents and the nominees of 14 separate political parties.

1,210,009 individuals were registered to vote in the 2011 Assembly election (representing an increase of 9.2% compared to the 2007 Assembly election).^[1][2] Turnout in the 2011 Assembly election was 55.7%, a decline of almost seven percentage points from the previous Assembly election and down over 14 percentage points from the first election to the Assembly in 1998.

As in the 2007 election, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin (SF) remained the two largest parties in the Assembly, with the DUP winning 38 and Sinn Féin winning 29 of the Assembly's 108 seats. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) won 16 seats, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 14 and the Alliance 8, while one seat each was won by the Green Party, Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) and an independent candidate.

Following the results of the election, Peter Robinson of the DUP and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin were nominated and subsequently re-elected as First Minister and deputy First Minister on 12 May 2011. The sole change to the Northern Ireland Executive was that the UUP lost a ministerial post to the Alliance.

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