Elections to the United Kingdom Parliament held in Northern Ireland
General Election of Thursday 5 May 2005

Background
As was widely expected, on Tuesday 5 April 2005 Prime Minister Tony Blair asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament to pave the way for a General Election on Thursday 5 May. Parliament was prorogued on Thursday 7 April ahead of the formal dissolution on Monday 11 April. The notice of the election was published on 14 April and nominations closed on 19 April.

Boundaries
There have been no boundary changes in Northern Ireland since 1997. Details of the existing boundaries can be found on the website for the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. The website is a little confusing as there was a proposal for changes to the boundaries which has not been accepted yet. Excellent maps of the current constituencies can be found on the Boundary Commission site - scroll down to the last two maps on the page.

Changes since 2001
There have been no by elections in Northern Ireland since 2001. Jeffrey Donaldson (Lagan Valley) resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party on 18 December 2003 and joined the Democratic Unionist Party on 5 January 2004.

Summary of 2005 results
There was a net gain of one seat for nationalist parties when a split unionist vote in Belfast South allowed the SDLP to capture it. Sinn Fein gained Newry & Armagh from the SDLP, but among the other nationalist seats there were no changes. The DUP won all the unionist seats apart from Down North, which the UUP managed to hold onto. This was a net gain of four for the DUP over the 2001 result.

9 (+4), 5 (+1), 3 (-), 1 (-5)

Constituencies

Constituency (2005 candidates)	Electorate (1 April 2005)	Party 2001	MP at dissolution	2005 Note	Number of Candidates
Antrim East	58,228		Roy Beggs	GAIN	6
Antrim North	74,348		Ian Paisley	hold	5
Antrim South	66,839		David Burnside	GAIN	5
Belfast East	53,064		Peter Robinson	hold	8
Belfast North	52,772		Nigel Dodds	hold	7
Belfast South	52,374		Martin Smyth	GAIN	7
Belfast West	53,776		Gerry Adams*	hold	7
Down North	59,611		Sylvia Hermon	hold	7
Down South	73,565		Eddie McGrady	hold	5
Fermanagh & Tyrone South	66,903		Michelle Gildernew*	hold	4
Foyle	69,121		John Hume	hold	6
Lagan Valley	70,600		Jeffrey Donaldson (see Changes since 2001 above)	GAIN	5
Londonderry East	58,757		Gregory Campbell	hold	6
Newry & Armagh	72,264		Seamus Mallon	GAIN	5
Strangford	68,933		Iris Robinson	hold	6
Tyrone West	60,226		Pat Doherty*	hold	5
Ulster Mid	62,533		Martin McGuinness*	hold	5
Upper Bann	72,062		David Trimble	GAIN	6

*Candidates elected for Sinn Féin did not take their seats in the House of Commons

• Electoral Office for Northern Ireland
• UK Electoral Commission