1973 Ards Borough Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1973.

Election Name:	1973 Ards Borough Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Next Election:	1977 Ards Borough Council election
Next Year:	1977
Seats For Election:	All 17 seats to Ards Borough Council
Majority Seats:	9
Party1:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats1:	11
Party2:	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Seats2:	2
Party3:	Northern Ireland Labour Party
Seats3:	1
Party4:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats4:	1
Party5:	Independent Unionist
Seats5:	1
Party6:	Loyalist Coalition
Seats6:	1

Elections to Ards Borough Council were held on 30 May 1973 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 17 councillors.

The elections were the first following the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland, brought about by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 & Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, which replaced the previous FPTP ward system with a new system of proportional representation using multi-member district electoral areas.

Election results

Party	valign=top	Seats	valign=top	±	valign=top	First Pref. votes	valign=top	FPv%	valign=top	±%
	11		11,499	54.5
	2		3,133	14.8
	Loyalist Coalition	1		1,608	8.0
	1		1,180	5.6
	1		1,114	5.3
	1		895	4.2
	0		1,510	7.2
	0		167	0.8
Totals	align=right	17		align=right	21,106	100.0	—

^[1]

Districts summary

^[1] |- class="unsortable" align="centre"!rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | NILP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Area A|bgcolor="40BFF5"|67.4|bgcolor="40BFF5"|6|10.8|0|0.7|0|14.7|1|6.4|0|7|-|align="left"|Area B|bgcolor="40BFF5"|48.6|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|15.4|1|13.1|1|1.0|0|22.9|1|6|-|align="left"|Area C|bgcolor="40BFF5"|45.5|bgcolor="40BFF5"|2|19.5|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|35.0|1|4|-|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|54.5|11|14.8|2|5.3|1|5.6|1|19.8|2|17|-|}

Districts results

Area A

1973: 6 x UUP, 1 x SDLP

Area B

1973: 3 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x NILP, 1 x Loyalist Coalition

Area C

1973: 2 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist

Notes and References

1. Web site: Local Government Elections 1973 - 1981: Ards. 7 June 2021.