The 1979 European election was a dramatic triumph for Ian Paisley, who achieved the DUP's best result to date, humikliating the UUP. Paisley would continue to top the poll at European elections until 2004; it was some time before his party's vote as a whoel came near to his personal appeal.
The first preference votes cast in the European election in Northern Ireland on 7 June 1989 (see spreadsheet):
Democratic Unionist Party (Rev Ian Paisley MP)
170,688 (29.8%)
Social Democratic and Labour Party (John Hume)
140,622 (25.5%)
Ulster Unionist Party (John Taylor)
68,185 (11.9%)
Ulster Unionist Party (Harry West)
56,984 (10.0%)
Alliance Party (Oliver Napier)
39,026 (6.8%)
Ind Unionist (James Kilfedder MP)
38,198 (6.7%)
Independent (Bernadette McAliskey)
33,969 (5.9%)
United Community (David Bleakley)
9,383 (1.6%)
United Labour Party (Paddy Devlin)
6,122 (1.1%)
Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (Edward Cummings)
3,712 (0.6%)
Republican Clubs (Brian Brennan)
3,258 (0.6%)
Republican Clubs (Francis Donnelly)
1,160 (0.2%)
Liberal (James Murray)
932 (0.2%)
Turnout was 586,059 of the 1,0229,490 electorate. 13,773 votes were invalid; 572,239 votes were valid. The quota was 143,060.
Transfers: Stage 2
The DUP candidate (Paisley) was declared elected on the first count as his votes exceeded the quota (143,060).
Paisley's surplus of 27,628 was then distributed to the next available preference as follows:
82,642 votes (48.4%) went to the two UUP candidates - 56,523 (33.1%) at a value of 9,043.68 to Taylor, taking him to 77,228.68, and 26,119 (15.3%) at a value of 4,179.04 to West, taking him to 61,163.04
77,652 votes (45.5%), at a value of 12,424.32, went to the independent Unionist, Kilfedder, taking him to 50,622.32, ahead of the Alliance candidate
2,363 votes (1.4%), at a value of 378.08, went to the Alliance candidate, Napier, for a total of 39,404.08
1,361 votes (0.8%), at a value of 217.76, went to the United Community candidate, Bleakley, for a total of 9,600.76
781 votes (0.5%), at a value of 124.96, went to the UPNI candidate, Cummings, for a total of 3,836.96
341 votes (0.2%), at a value of 54.56, went to the SDLP candidate, Hume, for a total of 140,676.56
155 votes (0.1%), at a value of 24.80, went to the United Labour Party candidate, Devlin, for a total of 6,146.80
100 votes (0.1%), at a value of 16.00, went to the Liberal candidate, Murray, for a total of 948.00
59 votes (0.03%) went to the two Republican Clubs candidates - 34 (0.02%) at a value of 5.44 to Brennan, taking him to 3,263.44, and 25 (0.01%) at a value of 4.00 to Donnelly, taking him to 1,164.00
42 votes (0.02%), at a value of 6.72, went to the independent candidate, McAliskey, taking her to a total of 33,975.72
5,192 votes were non-transferable. The remainder from the fractions above was 1,148.64
Transfers: Stage 3
The votes of the bottom six candidates (Liberal, two Republican Clubs, UPNI, United Labour and United Community) in total were still less than McAliskey's, so they were all eliminated and their votes redistributed to the next available preference as follows:
6,298.88 (25.2%) went to Alliance (Napier), taking him to 45,702.96
5,396.00 (21.6%) went to the SDLP (Hume), taking him to 146,072.56 and therefore over the quota
3,768.40 (15.1%) went to the two UUP candidates - 2,979.28 (11.9%) to Taylor, taking him to 80,207.96, and 789.12 (3.2%) to West, taking him to 61,952.16
3,363.84 (13.5%) went to the independent Unionist (Kilfedder), taking him to 53,986.16
2,129.72 (8.5%) went to the independent candidate (McAliskey), taking her to 36,105.44
4003.12 (16.0%) were non-transferable.
NB: strictly speaking Hume received 22.0% of the available transfers, as he got enough from the eliminated candidates' first preferences to take him over the quota.
Transfers: Stage 4
The SDLP surplus of 3,000 could not have rescued the independent candidate, McAliskey, who was more than 9,000 votes behind the Alliance Party, so she was eliminated and her votes redistributed to the next available preference as follows:
5,560.80 (15.4%) went to Alliance (Napier) taking him to 51,263.76
637.72 (1.8%) went to the independent Unionist, Kilfedder, taking him to 54,623.88
385.92 (1.1%) went to the two UUP candidates - 197.96 (0.5%) to Taylor, taking him to 80,405.92, and 187.96 (0.5%) to West, taking him to 62,140.12
29,521.00 (81.8%) were non-transferable.
Transfers: Stage 5
Alliance was less than 3,400 votes behind the independent Unionist, but it was margin enough for Napier to be eliminated and his votes transferred as follows:
19,776.96 (38.6%) to the two UUP candidates - 16,001.44 (31.2%) to Taylor, taking him to 96,407.36, and 3,755.52 (7.4%) to West, taking him to 65,915.64
14,760.08 (28.8%) to the independent Unionist, Kilfedder, taking him to 69,383.96 and ahead of West
16,726.72 (32.6%) were non-transferable
Transfers: Stage 6
The UUP's weaker candidate, West, was eliminated (Kilfedder again having a crucial margin of 3,400) and his votes were distributed between Taylor and Kilfedder as follows:
57,059.00 votes (86.6%) were transferred to his running-mate Taylor, taking him to 153,466.36 and over the quota
3,174.00 votes (4.8%) were transferred to Kilfedder, giving him a final total of 72,557.96
5,682.64 votes (8.6%) were not transferred
(I confess I'm a little puzzled that Taylor, who was 46,653 votes short of the quota, was not declared elected after the distribution of West's 56,984 first preferences alone - that must have given him enough. Obviously all West's full-value votes were considered as a single block.)
Past elections
This graph shows the performances of the main parties in the five direct elections to the European parliament held so far (NB that the 2004 result in yellow is that of independent candidate John Gilliland, not the Alliance Party). You can find a summary of the results of the five most recent NI elections at all levels on this site's home page and on a different page is a summary of NI election results since 1973.