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The second elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which at the time of the elections had been suspended for just over a year, were held on Wednesday 26 November 2003. Six members were elected by Single Transferable Vote from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, giving a total of 108 MLAs, or Members of the Legislative Assembly. The elections were contested by 18 parties, and a number of independent candidates. The elections were originally planned for May 2003,〔(The Northern Ireland (Date of Next Assembly Poll) Order 2003 )〕 but were delayed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.〔 ==Political Parties== On the unionist side, the Democratic Unionist Party gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller Unionist parties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes. Despite slipping to third place in first preference votes the Ulster Unionist Party actually increased their vote slightly and had a net loss of only one seat. Shortly after the election three Ulster Unionist MLAs, Jeffrey Donaldson, Nora Beare and Arlene Foster, defected to the Democratic Unionists. On the nationalist side, Sinn Féin saw a big increase in their vote, gaining six seats at the net expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. The minor parties all saw a significant fall in their support. The Alliance Party managed to hold all six of its seats despite their vote almost halving, the Women's Coalition, United Unionist Coalition and Northern Ireland Unionist Party were all wiped out, and the Progressive Unionist Party and UK Unionist Party had just one seat each. The biggest surprise of the election came in West Tyrone with the election of the independent Dr. Kieran Deeny, campaigning on the single issue of hospital provision in Omagh. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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