1981 Larne Borough Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1981.

Election Name:	1981 Larne Borough Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1977 Larne Borough Council election
Previous Year:	1977
Next Election:	1985 Larne Borough Council election
Next Year:	1985
Seats For Election:	All 15 seats to Larne Borough Council
Majority Seats:	8
Party1:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats1:	6
Seat Change1:	3
Party2:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats2:	4
Seat Change2:	2
Party3:	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Seats3:	3
Seat Change3:	1
Party4:	United Loyalist
Seats4:	1
Seat Change4:	1
Party5:	Independent Nationalist
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1
Party6:	Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party
Seats6:	0
Seat Change6:	3
Party7:	Independent (politician)
Seats7:	0
Seat Change7:	2
Party8:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats8:	0
Seat Change8:	1

Elections to Larne 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 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="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Area A|bgcolor="D46A4C"|30.8|bgcolor="D46A4C"|1|27.7|1|14.5|1|27.0|1|4|-|align="left"|Area B|bgcolor="D46A4C"|44.6|bgcolor="D46A4C"|2|16.7|1|8.6|0|30.1|1|4|-|align="left"|Area C|bgcolor="D46A4C"|37.2|bgcolor="D46A4C"|3|26.0|2|23.4|2|13.4|0|7|-|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|37.2|6|24.2|4|17.4|3|21.2|2|15|-|}

Districts results

Area A

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

Area B

1977: 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Vanguard
1981: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x United Loyalist
1977-1981 Change: DUP and United Loyalist gain from Alliance and Vanguard

Area C

1977: 2 x Alliance, 2 x Vanguard, 2 x Independent, 1 x DUP
1981: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 2 x Alliance
1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) and UUP (two seats) gain from Vanguard (two seats) and Independent (two seats)