1997 Strabane District Council election

Main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1997

Elections to Strabane District Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 16 councillors.

1997 Strabane District Council election

21 May 1997 (1997-05-21)
All 16 seats to Strabane District Council 9 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party SDLP Sinn Féin UUP Seats won 5 4 3 Seat change 0 2 1   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party DUP Ind. Nationalist Ind. Unionist Seats won 3 1 0 Seat change 0 0 1

Election results

Strabane District Council Election Result 1997

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SDLP	5	0	0	0	31.3	22.9	4,406	4.4
	Sinn Féin	4	2	0	2	25.0	33.1	6,364	12.0
	UUP	3	1	2	1	18.8	23.6	4,547	3.7
	DUP	3	0	0	0	18.8	14.7	2,821	5.2
	Ind. Nationalist	1	0	0	0	6.3	4.8	915	0.5
	Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.9	182	1.3

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

Results of the Strabane District Council election, 1997
by district

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	SDLP		Sinn Féin		UUP		DUP		Others
Derg	17.2	1	32.1	1	33.8	2	16.9	1	0.0	0	5
Glenelly	19.5	1	19.3	1	27.7	1	30.1	2	3.4	0	5
Mourne	30.6	3	45.3	2	11.6	0	0.0	0	12.5	1	6
Total	22.9	5	33.1	4	23.6	3	14.7	3	5.7	1	16

District results

Derg

1993: 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Independent Unionist
1997: 2 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP
1993-1997 Change: Independent Unionist joins UUP

Derg - 5 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Sinn Féin	Charles McHugh*	23.32%	1,440
	UUP	Derek Hussey*	20.19%	1,247
	UUP	Edward Turner*	13.57%	838	838.58	988.35	1,047.73
	DUP	Thomas Kerrigan*	9.65%	596	596.29	647.8	1,034.7
	SDLP	Tomás Murtagh	8.91%	550	583.06	584.08	584.08	1,022.08
	Sinn Féin	Sean Elliott	8.82%	545	886.62	886.79	887.96	944.53
	SDLP	Bernadette McNamee	8.31%	513	543.16	543.84	544.84
	DUP	Sarah Anderson	7.24%	447	447.29	454.94
Electorate: 8,241   Valid: 6,176 (74.94%)   Spoilt: 128   Quota: 1,030   Turnout: 6,304 (76.50%)

Glenelly

1993: 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 1 x SDLP
1997: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin
1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from UUP

Glenelly - 5 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	SDLP	Tom McBride	19.53%	1,155
	Sinn Féin	Martin Conway	19.34%	1,144
	DUP	Allan Bresland*	18.61%	1,101
	UUP	James Emery*	13.84%	1,021
	DUP	John Donnell*	11.45%	677	677.42	680.72	781.82	805.61	822.73
	UUP	Wilfred Sinclair	10.41%	616	616.63	617.95	624.75	633.8	708.62
	Alliance	Elizabeth McCaffrey	1.47%	87	196.62	281.76	281.76	350.45
	Ind. Nationalist	John Gallagher*	1.93%	114	166.92	230.61	231.91
Electorate: 7,727   Valid: 5,915 (76.55%)   Spoilt: 99   Quota: 986   Turnout: 6,014 (77.83%)

Mourne

1993: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1997: 3 x SDLP, 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from UUP

Mourne - 6 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Sinn Féin	Ivan Barr*	27.42%	1,959
	Sinn Féin	Jarlath McNulty	17.86%	1,276
	SDLP	Thomas Mullen	15.73%	1,124
	Ind. Nationalist	James O'Kane*	11.21%	801	1,224.28
	SDLP	Eugene McMenamin	10.58%	756	1,091.96
	SDLP	Ann Bell*	4.31%	308	471.54	701.94	740.82	940.57	1,039.9
	UUP	John Cummings*	11.55%	825	830.92	842.12	878.86	882.26	882.81
	Alliance	Marie Wallace	1.33%	95	98.7	109.1
Electorate: 10,298   Valid: 7,144 (69.37%)   Spoilt: 125   Quota: 1,021   Turnout: 7,269 (70.59%)