1981 Banbridge District Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1981.

Election Name:	1981 Banbridge District Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1977 Banbridge District Council election
Previous Year:	1977
Next Election:	1985 Banbridge District Council election
Next Year:	1985
Seats For Election:	All 15 seats to Banbridge District Council
Majority Seats:	8
Party1:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats1:	8
Seat Change1:	0
Party2:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats2:	4
Seat Change2:	1
Party3:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats3:	2
Seat Change3:	0
Party4:	Independent Nationalist
Seats4:	1
Seat Change4:	0
Party5:	Independent Unionist
Seats5:	0
Seat Change5:	1

Elections to Banbridge District Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used two district electoral areas to elect a total of 15 councillors.

Election results

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

|- class="unsortable" align="centre"!rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Area A|bgcolor="40BFF5"|34.7|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|25.3|2|13.9|1|26.1|1|7|-|align="left"|Area B|bgcolor="40BFF5"|50.4|bgcolor="40BFF5"|5|27.9|2|16.2|1|5.5|0|8|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|42.1|8|26.5|4|14.9|2|16.5|1|15|-|}

Districts results

Area A

1977: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Nationalist, 1 x Independent Unionist
1981: 3 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1977-1981 Change: DUP gain from Independent Unionist

Area B

1977: 5 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1981: 5 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1977-1981 Change: No change