# 1989 Down District Council election

Elections to Down District Council were held on 17 May 1989 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

Down District Council Election Result 1989 :
| Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net gain/loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/− |
| SDLP | 12 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 52.2 | 49.2 | 12,227 | 7.6 |
| UUP | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 34.8 | 31.1 | 7,716 | 0.8 |
| DUP | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8.7 | 8.5 | 2,110 | 3.7 |
| Alliance | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.3 | 2.2 | 534 | 3.0 |
| Sinn Féin | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 4.8 | 1,194 | 1.7 |
| Workers' Party | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 393 | 2.6 |
| Ind. Unionist | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 351 | 0.8 |
| Independent Labour | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 193 | 0.8 |
| Green (NI) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 107 | New |
Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

## Districts summary

Results of the Down District Council election, 1989 by district :
| Ward | % | Cllrs | % | Cllrs | % | Cllrs | % | Cllrs | % | Cllrs | Total Cllrs |
| Ward | SDLP | SDLP | UUP | UUP | DUP | DUP | Alliance | Alliance | Others | Others | | Total Cllrs |
| Ballynahinch | 45.3 | 2 | 36.1 | 2 | 13.8 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 4.8 | 0 | 5 |
| Downpatrick | 65.1 | 5 | 14.9 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 7.2 | 1 | 12.8 | 0 | 7 |
| Newcastle | 54.2 | 4 | 28.1 | 2 | 6.9 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 10.8 | 0 | 6 |
| Rowallane | 26.9 | 1 | 50.7 | 3 | 16.1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 6.3 | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 49.2 | 12 | 31.1 | 8 | 8.5 | 2 | 2.2 | 1 | 9.0 | 0 | 23 |

## District results
### Ballynahinch

1985: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP 1989: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP 1985-1989 Change: No change
Ballynahinch - 5 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| | SDLP | Patrick Toman | 21.33% | 1,222 | | | | |
| | UUP | James Cochrane* | 21.01% | 1,204 | | | | |
| | SDLP | James Magee* | 17.19% | 985 | | | | |
| | UUP | Walter Lyons | 15.08% | 864 | 865.54 | 1,053.91 | | |
| | DUP | Thomas Poole* | 13.79% | 790 | 791.98 | 848.47 | 935.26 | 967.26 |
| | SDLP | Patrick King | 6.77% | 388 | 630.88 | 631.51 | 632.17 | 750.17 |
| | Sinn Féin | Patrick McGreevy | 2.97% | 170 | 180.12 | 180.12 | 180.34 | |
| | Green (NI) | Philip Allen | 1.87% | 107 | 109.2 | 111.51 | 115.8 | |
| Electorate: 8,529 Valid: 5,730 (67.18%) Spoilt: 126 Quota: 956 Turnout: 5,856 (68.66%) |||||||||

### Downpatrick

1985: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Workers' Party 1989: 5 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance 1985-1989 Change: SDLP and Alliance gain from Sinn Féin and Workers' Party
Downpatrick - 7 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| | SDLP | Dermot Curran* | 16.09% | 1,198 | | | | | |
| | UUP | Samuel McCartney* | 14.91% | 1,110 | | | | | |
| | SDLP | John Ritchie* | 11.93% | 888 | 918.59 | 927.23 | 959.23 | | |
| | SDLP | Sean Quinn* | 10.64% | 792 | 823.74 | 832.38 | 892.86 | 983.86 | |
| | SDLP | Malachi Curran | 9.60% | 715 | 803.55 | 807.39 | 854.04 | 926.81 | 938.01 |
| | SDLP | John Doris | 9.50% | 707 | 744.26 | 750.98 | 787.55 | 845.7 | 870.5 |
| | Alliance | Michael Healy | 7.17% | 534 | 543.89 | 665.17 | 744.33 | 773.88 | 779.48 |
| | SDLP | Mary Breen | 7.36% | 548 | 596.53 | 600.69 | 645.47 | 714.39 | 725.59 |
| | Sinn Féin | Geraldine Ritchie* | 7.35% | 547 | 554.36 | 555.32 | 595.88 | | |
| | Workers' Party | Monica Hynds | 2.87% | 214 | 217.45 | 231.21 | | | |
| | Independent Labour | William Hampton | 2.59% | 193 | 197.14 | 204.82 | | | |
| Electorate: 11,698 Valid: 7,446 (63.65%) Spoilt: 153 Quota: 931 Turnout: 7,599 (64.96%) ||||||||||

### Newcastle

1985: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP 1989: 4 x SDLP, 2 x UUP 1985-1989 Change: SDLP and UUP gain from Sinn Féin and DUP
Newcastle - 6 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| | UUP | Gerald Douglas* | 22.00% | 1,329 | | | | | | |
| | SDLP | Michael Boyd* | 21.04% | 1,271 | | | | | | |
| | SDLP | Eamon O'Neill* | 18.09% | 1,093 | | | | | | |
| | SDLP | Peter Fitzpatrick | 8.97% | 542 | 546.32 | 762.14 | 792.46 | 910.9 | | |
| | UUP | William Brown* | 6.06% | 366 | 761.28 | 765.9 | 781.42 | 782.26 | 1,151.26 | |
| | SDLP | Cathal O'Baoill | 6.11% | 369 | 376.56 | 521.43 | 588.71 | 665.15 | 669.72 | 679.72 |
| | Sinn Féin | Sean Fitzpatrick | 7.89% | 477 | 477.36 | 491.22 | 511.87 | 534.13 | 534.85 | 534.85 |
| | DUP | John Finlay | 6.89% | 416 | 465.68 | 466.34 | 470.7 | 471.33 | | |
| | Workers' Party | Henry Robinson | 2.96% | 179 | 183.32 | 199.16 | | | | |
| Electorate: 9,641 Valid: 6,042 (62.67%) Spoilt: 166 Quota: 864 Turnout: 6,208 (64.39%) |||||||||||

### Rowallane

1985: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1989: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1985-1989 Change: No change
Rowallane - 5 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| | SDLP | Margaret Ritchie* | 26.91% | 1,509 | | | | |
| | UUP | Samuel Osborne* | 23.58% | 1,322 | | | | |
| | UUP | Albert Colmer | 13.93% | 781 | 915 | 1,104.9 | | |
| | UUP | William Biggerstaff* | 13.20% | 740 | 892 | 969.4 | | |
| | DUP | William Dick* | 11.63% | 652 | 678 | 717.3 | 779.1 | 1,013.1 |
| | Ind. Unionist | William Walker | 6.26% | 351 | 413 | 461.9 | 480.8 | 488.8 |
| | DUP | William Greer | 4.49% | 252 | 311 | 334.4 | 371.3 | |
| Electorate: 8,574 Valid: 5,607 (65.40%) Spoilt: 106 Quota: 935 Turnout: 5,713 (66.63%) |||||||||