THE 2003 ELECTION

DemocraShe: Success in the Middle of the Turmoil

Northern Ireland’s long awaited election took place on 26 November, and interest was high during the following two days of counting votes to see who was going to make it into the Assembly. The result was a strong percentage of newcomers, a reversal of the fortunes of the two parties that had led the Northern Ireland Executive from 1998 and a greater number of women. The voter turnout is usually high, but it showed marked variations this time. The highest turnout was in the west, in constituencies that have strong republican and nationalist leanings. These areas registered over 70% while the unionist-held constituency of North Down saw just 54.5% of their electorate come out to vote. The average turnout across Northern Ireland was 63.1%.

The big winner in the election was the anti-Agreement Democratic Unionist Party led by the Reverend Ian Paisley. The DUP’s share of the vote was 25.7% and they took 30 of the 108 Assembly seats. In the 1998 – 2003 Assembly they held just 20 seats. However, the gains of the DUP were less at the expense of the Ulster Unionist Party, led by David Trimble, than of smaller anti-Agreement parties. The UUP took 27 seats, one less than last time with their 22.7% vote share. But UUP problems remain, with 5 anti-Agreement candidates who are more likely to vote with the DUP having been returned among their number.

The other winner was Sinn Fein, under Gerry Adams, which gained ground very much at the expense of the nationalist SDLP led by Mark Durkan. The two parties simply swapped vote and seat position, with Sinn Fein on 22.7% of the vote and 24 seats and the SDLP on 17% with 18.

This was not a good election for the smaller parties. Only three survived. The Alliance party held onto its six seats while the pro-Agreement Progressive Unionist Party and the anti-Agreement UK Unionist Party were reduced to one seat each. A new and unusual independent candidate – standing to campaign for the retention of a local hospital – completes the 108 Member Assembly.

This election was bitterly fought over the Agreement, particularly on the unionist side. In part this led to the demise of the smaller parties. It is within this context that we report what happened to women candidates in the election.

As our supporters will know NIWI is non-partisan and works with parties right across the political spectrum, not just unionist and nationalist but pro- and anti-Agreement. In preparation for the election we trained women from February until May 2004 from the DUP, Sinn Fein, UUP, SDLP, Alliance Party and the Women’s Coalition. We topped that training up by offering parties additional sessions of their choice as the election approached. This took different forms, for example media strategy mentoring and lessons on ‘tallying’ at the count.

18 Women Elected: Results by Party

The November 2003 election was very successful for women. Eighteen women were returned compared to just fourteen in 1998. Women now make up 16.7% of the Assembly. But the story is a story of two halves with nationalist women in the great majority, and only four unionist Women elected: results by party. A staggering 11 women are new to the Assembly. Seven served in the last Assembly. Ten of the Women elected: results by partyhad been trained by NIWI in 2001 or 2003.

When viewed from two standpoints NIWI’s DemocraShe programme was highly successful. Firstly, it assisted in getting new Women elected: results by party. Secondly, no women who had been trained by NIWI lost her seat.

Every party elected has a least one new woman. In the case of the Ulster Unionist Party both successful women are new, and both were trained by NIWI in 2003. The UUP and DUP have two women each as has the Alliance Party, but the Alliance women are 33.3% of their party’s representation to the Assembly while the two unionist women are just 7%. Alliance has just six seats while the DUP and UUP have 33 and 27 respectively.

Sinn Fein achieved the greatest number of women through running women in winnable seats. In fact Sinn Fein demonstrated considerable commitment to improving the position of women in politics by selecting woman candidates to contest every constituency except one. There are seven Sinn Fein women and they are 29.2% of Sinn Fein’s Assembly representation of 24. With five women out of 18 Assembly members the SDLP’s Assembly team is 22.2% women.

But there were disappointments for women too. The Women’s Coalition failed to retain either of their seats – by small margin in each case. Other women who fell at the last hurdle include the third Ulster Unionist woman contesting the election, Diana Peacocke, who was just eliminated on the last count. Diana is a strong pro-Agreement unionist who was recognised by her party leader, David Trimble, as a new-comer to watch out for in the future.

Patricia Lewsley of the SDLP commented recently ‘DemocraShe helped me to widen my network of support and to identify my skills and those of my colleagues’. She and former Minister Carmel Hanna took part in DemocraShe 2003 learning, and sharing skills, with new SDLP candidates. They both retained their seats while new-comer Dolores Kelly said she was ‘certainly better prepared as a result of the training’ which paid off when she was elected.

Sinn Fein Mayor Pat O’Rawe, now in the Assembly, started out with DemocraShe training before she ran for any elected office. She has scored the hat trick of local Councillor, Mayor of Armagh and Assembly Member between 2001 and 2003.