1981 Coleraine Borough Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1981.

Election Name:	1981 Coleraine Borough Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1977 Coleraine Borough Council election
Previous Year:	1977
Next Election:	1985 Coleraine Borough Council election
Next Year:	1985
Seats For Election:	All 20 seats to Coleraine Borough Council
Majority Seats:	11
Party1:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats1:	8
Seat Change1:	2
Party2:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats2:	6
Seat Change2:	4
Party3:	Independent (politician)
Seats3:	3
Seat Change3:	0
Party4:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats4:	2
Seat Change4:	0
Party5:	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1
Party6:	Independent Unionist
Seats6:	0
Seat Change6:	1

Elections to Coleraine Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 20 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
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Area A|bgcolor="40BFF5"|34.2|bgcolor="40BFF5"|2|26.1|2|28.0|2|1.7|0|10.0|0|6|-|align="left"|Area B|bgcolor="40BFF5"|43.4|bgcolor="40BFF5"|4|34.2|2|10.0|0|11.4|1|1.0|0|7|-|align="left"|Area C|27.4|2|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|38.1|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2|0.0|0|6.3|0|28.2|3|7|-|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|34.2|8|33.2|6|11.7|2|6.3|1|14.6|3|20|-|}

Districts results

Area A

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

Area B

1977: 4 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Unionist
1981: 4 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x Alliance
1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) gain from SDLP and Independent Unionist

Area C

1977: 3 x UUP, 2 x Independent, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance
1981: 3 x Independent, 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP
1977-1981 Change: DUP and Independent gain from UUP and Alliance