The 1969 Northern Ireland general election was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
This was the first (and only) election since the 1929 general election to see changes to the constituencies. The Queen's University of Belfast seat was abolished and four new constituencies were created in the suburbs of Belfast to compensate for population growth there.
Unlike previous elections that produced a large unambiguous majority for the Ulster Unionist Party, this one gave more complex results.
The Ulster Unionists were divided over a variety of reforms introduced by Prime Minister Terence O'Neill and this division spilled over into the election with official Ulster Unionist candidates standing either in support of or opposition to O'Neill and a number of Unofficial Unionists, who were independent pro O'Neill candidates standing against unsupportive Official Unionist candidates. The results left O'Neill without a clear majority for his reforms and he resigned not long afterwards.
The Nationalist Party that had for a long time represented the bulk of the Catholic minority faced strong challenges and two of its leading figures were defeated. The leader Eddie McAteer lost Foyle to the independent John Hume[1] and Paddy Gormley lost Mid Londonderry to the independent Ivan Cooper.[1] Both Hume and Cooper would go on to form the Social Democratic and Labour Party which would take over the Nationalist mantle.
Ian Paisley's Protestant Unionist Party that was broadly opposed to O'Neill's agenda on civil rights, put up a number of candidates. Although none of them were returned O'Neill was almost defeated by Paisley in Bannside a seat that had not been contested since 1949. Paisley gained the seat at a 1970 by-election.
Due to the local selection rules a number of anti-O'Neill candidates managed to get reselected or selected for seats. Many of them were opposed by 17 unofficial Unionist candidates supporting O'Neill,[2] often backed by the New Ulster Movement. They won three seats[3] - Belfast Clifton (where the sitting Unionist MP for was forbidden by a court order from referring to himself as the official Unionist candidate because of a violation of the rules at his selection meeting); Bangor and Belfast Willowfield.
Electorate: 912,087 (778,031 in contested seats); Turnout: 71.9% (559,087).