2001 Down District Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 2001.

Election Name:	2001 Down District Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1997 Down District Council election
Previous Year:	1997
Next Election:	2005 Down District Council election
Next Year:	2005
Seats For Election:	All 23 seats to Down District Council
Majority Seats:	12
Party1:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats1:	10
Seat Change1:	2
Party2:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats2:	6
Seat Change2:	0
Party3:	Sinn Féin
Seats3:	4
Seat Change3:	2
Party4:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats4:	2
Seat Change4:	0
Party5:	Independent (politician)
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1
Party6:	Northern Ireland Women's Coalition
Seats6:	0
Seat Change6:	1

Elections to Down District Council were held on 7 June 2001 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
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Sinn Féin!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Ballynahinch|bgcolor="#99FF66"|39.4|bgcolor="#99FF66"|2|24.0|1|13.6|1|23.0|1|0.0|0|5|-|align="left"|Downpatrick|bgcolor="#99FF66"|52.7|bgcolor="#99FF66"|4|9.3|1|21.1|1|2.4|0|14.5|1|7|-|align="left"|Newcastle|bgcolor="#99FF66"|44.6|bgcolor="#99FF66"|3|15.7|1|27.6|2|9.0|0|3.1|0|6|-|align="left"|Rowallane|25.1|1|bgcolor="40BFF5"|41.8|bgcolor="40BFF5"|3|4.4|0|26.2|1|2.5|0|5|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|41.2|10|21.8|6|17.2|4|14.3|2|5.5|1|23|-|}

Districts results

Ballynahinch

1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP
2001: 2 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Féin
1997-2001 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP

Downpatrick

1997: 5 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP
2001: 4 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent
1997-2001 Change: Independent gain from SDLP

Newcastle

1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Women's Coalition
2001: 3 x SDLP, 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP
1997-2001 Change: Sinn Féin gain from Women's Coalition

Rowallane

1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
2001: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP
1997-2001 Change: No change