| Belfast West | |
| Type: | Parliamentary |
| Parl Name: | Northern Ireland Assembly |
| Year: | 1973 |
| Members Label: | MLAs |
| Seats: | 6 (1998–2016) 5 (2017–) |
| Local Council Label: | City council |
| Local Council: | Belfast City Council |
| Blank1 Name: | Boundaries |
Belfast West (Ulster Scots: Belfast West) is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
It was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election in 1973, which elected the then Northern Ireland Assembly. It usually shares boundaries with the Belfast West UK Parliament constituency. However, the boundaries of the two constituencies were slightly different from 1973 to 1974, 1983 to 1986 and 2010 to 2011 (because the Assembly boundaries had not caught up with Parliamentary boundary changes) and from 1996 to 1997, when members of the Northern Ireland Forum had been elected from the newly drawn Parliamentary constituencies but the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected in 1992 under the 1983–95 constituency boundaries, was still in session.
Members were then elected from the constituency to the 1975 Constitutional Convention, the 1982 Assembly, the 1996 Forum and then to the current Assembly from 1998.
For further details of the history and boundaries of the constituency, see Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency).
| Election | MLA (party) | MLA (party) | MLA (party) | MLA (party) | MLA (party) | MLA (party) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Paddy Devlin (SDLP) | Desmond Gillespie (SDLP) | Hugh Smyth (Independent Unionist) | Bob Cooper (Alliance Party) | John Laird (UUP) | Jean Coulter (Vanguard/UUP) | ||||||
| 1975 | Joe Hendron (SDLP) | |||||||||||
| 1982 | 4 seats 1982–1996 | Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin) | Will Glendinning (Alliance) | Thomas Passmore (UUP) | 4 seats 1982–1996 | |||||||
| 1996 | 5 seats 1996–1998 | Alex Maskey (Sinn Féin) | Dodie McGuinness (Sinn Féin) | Annie Armstrong (Sinn Féin) | ||||||||
| 1998 | Alex Attwood (SDLP) | Bairbre De Brun (Sinn Féin) | Sue Ramsey (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||
| 2003 | Diane Dodds (DUP) | Fra McCann (Sinn Féin) | Michael Ferguson (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||
| November 2004 co-option | Sue Ramsey (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
| 2007 | Paul Maskey (Sinn Féin) | Jennifer McCann (Sinn Féin) | ||||||||||
| December 2010 co-option | Pat Sheehan (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
| 2011 | ||||||||||||
| July 2012 co-option | Rosie McCorley (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
| November 2014 co-option | Alex Maskey (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
| 2016 | Gerry Carroll (PBP) | |||||||||||
| December 2016 co-option | Órlaithí Flynn (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
| 2017 | 5 seats 2017–present | |||||||||||
| October 2021 co-option | Aisling Reilly (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
| 2022 | Danny Baker (Sinn Féin) | |||||||||||
Note: All Republican Sinn Féin candidates appeared as Independent on the ballot paper.
Note: David Kerr sought election as an Ulster Third Way candidate, and appeared as such on the ballot paper.
Note: Mary Cahillane sought election as a Pro-Agreement Socialist candidate, and appeared as such on the ballot paper.
Successful candidates are shown in bold.[1]
| Party | Candidate(s) | Votes | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerry Adams Dodie McGuinness Alex Maskey Annie Armstrong Marie Moore | 22,355 | 53.4 | ||
| Joe Hendron Alex Attwood Margaret Walsh Patricia Lewsley Mary Muldoon | 11,087 | 26.5 | ||
| Hugh Smyth Mina Wardle | 1,982 | 4.7 | ||
| Eric Smyth Margaret Ferris | 1,769 | 4.2 | ||
| Fred Parkinson John McDonald | 1,489 | 3.6 | ||
| John Lowry Jim Pollock | 984 | 2.4 | ||
| Frank McCoubrey Delwyn Williams | 848 | 2.0 | ||
| Dan McGuinness Patricia Mallon Glyn Roberts | 340 | 0.8 | ||
| Mary Cahillane Isabel Cowan Barbara Lynn Brian McDermott Terence McDonagh | 319 | 0.8 | ||
| Vera McKee Mary Catney Ann Hall Julie Cullen | 252 | 0.6 | ||
| Jude Stephens Philip Kearney David Taylor | 156 | 0.4 | ||
| Charles Balmer David Munster | 60 | 0.1 | ||
| DUP | Florence Baxter William Clements | 36 | 0.1 | |
| Kenneth McClinton Clifford Peoples | 43 | 0.1 | ||
| Mary McMahon Freddie Rea | 37 | 0.1 | ||
| Michael Kennedy Vivien Martin | 30 | 0.1 | ||
| Barry Bruton Daniella Egerton | 28 | 0.1 | ||
| Bernard McGrath Susan McGrath | 26 | 0.1 | ||
| Chambers | Ruth Patty Richard Stewart | 12 | 0.0 | |
Note: John Laird, Jean Coulter and Edith Goligher were all UUUC endorsed candidates.
Note: John Laird, Hugh Smyth, Jean Coulter and William Spence used the label "West Belfast Loyalist Coalition" simultaneously whilst standing under different party affiliations.