South Down

Margaret Ritchie SDLP 8,506 20.4%
Caitriona Ruane SF 5,955 14.3%
Jim Wells DUP 5,200 12.5%
John McCallister UUP 4,409 10.6%
Willie Clarke SF 3,882 9.3%
Karen McKevitt SDLP 3,758 9.0%
Naomi Bailie SF 3,050 7.3%
Eamonn O’Neill SDLP 2,663 6.4%
Henry Reilly UKIP 2,332 5.6%
Cadogan Enright GRN 1,107 2.7%
David Griffin AP 864 2.1%

I had thought that one of the two Unionist seats here was vulnerable to demographic changes, but in fact there was sufficient residual strength – with transfers from the UK Independence Party – to ensure no change in party strength.

Strangford

Michelle McIlveen DUP 4,573 15.4%
Kieran McCarthy AP 4,284 14.4%
Jonathan Bell DUP 4,265 14.4%
Simon Hamilton DUP 3,456 11.6%
Mike Nesbitt UUP 3,273 11%
David McNarry UUP 2,773 9.3%
Joe Boyle SDLP 2,525 8.5%
Billy Walker DUP 2,175 7.3%
Mickey Coogan SF 902 3.0%
Terry Williams TUV 841 2.8%
Cecil Andrews UKIP 601 2.0%

The most surprising result of the election for me – I really thought that the SDLP, who missed the last seat here by 44 votes in 2007, and were favoured by boundary changes, would make the breakthrough; but in the end they were beaten by over 400 votes by the second UUP candidate, in a rare (and crucial) case of the UUP taking a seat from the DUP rather than the other way round.