1981 Cookstown District Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1981.

Election Name:	1981 Cookstown District Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1977 Cookstown District Council election
Previous Year:	1977
Next Election:	1985 Cookstown District Council election
Next Year:	1985
Seats For Election:	All 15 seats to Cookstown District Council
Majority Seats:	8
Party1:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats1:	5
Seat Change1:	0
Party2:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats2:	4
Seat Change2:	0
Party3:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats3:	3
Seat Change3:	2
Party4:	United Ulster Unionist Party
Seats4:	1
Seat Change4:	2
Party5:	Independent Nationalist
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	0
Party6:	Independent Republican (Ireland)
Seats6:	1
Seat Change6:	0

Elections to Cookstown District 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 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
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Area A|bgcolor="#99FF66"|25.8|bgcolor="#99FF66"|1|21.5|1|21.8|1|9.4|1|21.5|1|5|-|align="left"|Area B|bgcolor="#99FF66"|28.2|bgcolor="#99FF66"|2|22.6|2|23.5|1|0.0|0|25.7|1|6|-|align="left"|Area C|bgcolor="#99FF66"|41.4|bgcolor="#99FF66"|2|30.7|1|27.9|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|4|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|31.4|5|24.7|4|24.3|3|2.9|3|16.7|2|15|-|}

Districts results

Area A

1977: 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x UUUP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1981: 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x UUUP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1977-1981 Change: No change

Area B

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

Area C

1977: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP
1981: 2 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1977-1981 Change: DUP gain from UUP