1973 Northern Ireland local elections

1973 Northern Ireland local elections

30 May 1973

All seats to 26 local authorities
  First party Second party
 
SDLP
Leader Brian Faulkner Gerry Fitt
Party UUP SDLP
Seats won 194 82
Popular vote 255,187 92,600
Percentage 37.4% 13.4%

  Third party Fourth party
 
APNI
Leader Oliver Napier Ian Paisley
Party Alliance DUP
Seats won 63 21
Popular vote 94,474 28,811
Percentage 13.7% 4.1%

Local government in Northern Ireland was reorganised in 1973 by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 and the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. The county councils, county borough and municipal borough corporations and urban and rural district councils were replaced by twenty-six local government districts.

Elections took place for all the seats on the district councils on 30 May 1973. Elections were by proportional representation, using the single transferable vote system. The district councils came into their powers on 1 October.