1985 Down District Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1985.

Election Name:	1985 Down District Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1981 Down District Council election
Previous Year:	1981
Next Election:	1989 Down District Council election
Next Year:	1989
Seats For Election:	All 23 seats to Down District Council
Majority Seats:	12
Party1:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats1:	10
Seat Change1:	1
Party2:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats2:	7
Seat Change2:	2
Party3:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats3:	3
Seat Change3:	0
Party4:	Sinn Féin
Seats4:	2
Seat Change4:	2
Party5:	Workers' Party (Ireland)
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	0
Party6:	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Seats6:	0
Seat Change6:	1
Party7:	Independent Labour
Seats7:	0
Seat Change7:	1

Elections to Down District Council were held on 15 May 1985 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 23 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
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Sinn Féin!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Workers Party!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Ballynahinch|bgcolor="#99FF66"|40.5|bgcolor="#99FF66"|2|33.3|2|18.9|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|7.3|0|5|-|align="left"|Downpatrick|bgcolor="#99FF66"|57.4|bgcolor="#99FF66"|4|16.3|1|0.0|0|9.9|1|9.1|1|7.3|0|7|-|align="left"|Newcastle|bgcolor="#99FF66"|40.8|bgcolor="#99FF66"|3|22.1|1|12.0|1|14.0|1|5.8|0|5.3|0|6|-|align="left"|Rowallane|22.4|1|bgcolor="40BFF5"|55.7|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|21.9|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|0.0|0|5|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|41.6|10|30.3|7|12.2|3|6.5|1|4.2|1|5.2|0|23|-|}

District results

Ballynahinch

1985: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP

Downpatrick

1985: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Workers' Party

Newcastle

1985: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP

Rowallane

1985: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP