1997 Down District Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1997.

Election Name:	1997 Down District Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1993 Down District Council election
Previous Year:	1993
Next Election:	2001 Down District Council election
Next Year:	2001
Seats For Election:	All 23 seats to Down District Council
Majority Seats:	12
Party1:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats1:	12
Seat Change1:	1
Party2:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats2:	6
Seat Change2:	1
Party3:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats3:	2
Seat Change3:	1
Party4:	Sinn Féin
Seats4:	2
Seat Change4:	2
Party5:	Northern Ireland Women's Coalition
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1

Elections to Down District 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 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="" | NIWC!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Ballynahinch|bgcolor="#99FF66"|46.8|bgcolor="#99FF66"|3|24.0|1|24.9|1|4.3|0|0.0|0|0.0|0|5|-|align="left"|Downpatrick|bgcolor="#99FF66"|61.0|bgcolor="#99FF66"|5|13.2|1|0.0|0|10.8|1|0.0|0|15.0|0|7|-|align="left"|Newcastle|bgcolor="#99FF66"|47.2|bgcolor="#99FF66"|3|17.6|1|9.4|0|14.2|1|7.4|1|4.2|0|6|-|align="left"|Rowallane|26.6|1|bgcolor="40BFF5"|43.9|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|15.1|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|14.4|0|5|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|46.0|12|24.1|6|11.9|2|7.6|2|1.9|1|8.5|0|23|-|}

Districts results

Ballynahinch

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

Downpatrick

1993: 6 x SDLP, 1 x UUP
1997: 5 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP
1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP

Newcastle

1993: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Women's Coalition
1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin and Women's Coalition gain from SDLP and DUP

Rowallane

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