1997 Ballymena Borough Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1997.

Election Name:	1997 Ballymena Borough Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1993 Ballymena Borough Council election
Previous Year:	1993
Next Election:	2001 Ballymena Borough Council election
Next Year:	2001
Seats For Election:	All 24 seats to Ballymena Borough Council
Majority Seats:	13
Party1:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats1:	11
Seat Change1:	1
Party2:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats2:	8
Seat Change2:	1
Party3:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats3:	3
Seat Change3:	1
Party4:	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Seats4:	1
Seat Change4:	0
Party5:	Independent Unionist
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1

Elections to Ballymena Borough Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 24 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"|Ballymena North|bgcolor="40BFF5"|36.8|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|22.0|1|16.8|1|7.8|1|16.6|1|7|-|align="left"|Ballymena South|36.6|3|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|40.9|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|3|17.6|1|0.0|0|4.9|0|7|-|align="left"|Bannside|32.9|2|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|50.7|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|3|16.4|0|0.0|0|0.0|0|5|-|align="left"|Braid|bgcolor="40BFF5"|47.7|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|32.7|1|19.6|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|5|-|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|38.3|11|36.7|8|17.5|3|2.0|1|5.5|1|24|-|}

Districts results

Ballymena North

1993: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist
1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist
1993-1997 Change: No change

Ballymena South

1993: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Unionist
1997: 3 x DUP, 3 x UUP, 1 x SDLP
1993-1997 Change: UUP gain from Independent Unionist

Bannside

1993: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP
1997: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP
1993-1997 Change: No change

Braid

1993: 3 x UUP, 2 x DUP
1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1993-1997 Change: SDLP gain from DUP