1949 Northern Ireland general election

1949 Northern Ireland general election

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All 52 seats to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 27 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Basil Brooke James McSparran Hugh Downey Party UUP Nationalist NI Labour Leader since 1 May 1943 15 November 1945 15 November 1945 Leader's seat Lisnaskea Mourne Belfast Dock (defeated) Last election 33 seats, 50.4% 9 seats, 9.1% 2 seats, 18.5% Seats won 37[u 1] 9[n 1] 0 Seat change 4 1 2 Popular vote 237,411 101,445 26,831 Percentage 62.7% 26.8% 7.1% Swing 12.3% 17.6% 11.4%
Election results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Basil Brooke UUP Prime Minister after election Basil Brooke UUP

The 1949 Northern Ireland general election was held on 19 February 1949. The election became known as the Chapel-gate election because collections were held at churches in the Republic of Ireland to support the Nationalist Party campaign.^[1][2]

The election was held just after the Republic of Ireland's declaration of a republic. The Unionists were able to use their majority in the Parliament of Northern Ireland to schedule the election at a time when many Protestants felt uneasy about events taking place south of the border, and as a result might be more likely to vote Unionist than for Labour candidates. This appears to have been borne out in the collapse of the Labour vote; the party lost both of its 2 seats in the Commons, and would not return to the Parliament until 1958.

20 MPs were elected unopposed, most of them Ulster Unionists.

1949 Northern Ireland general election
Party		Candidates						Votes
		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	UUP	46	37	4	0	+4	71.2	62.7	237,411	+12.3
	Nationalist	17	9	0	1	-1	17.3	26.8	101,445	+17.6
	NI Labour	9	0	0	2	-2	—	7.1	26,831	-11.4
	Independent Labour	4	1	1	1	0	1.9	2.1	7,970	-0.7
	Ind. Unionist	3	2	0	0	0	3.8	0.6	2,150	-4.4
	Independent	2	2	0	0	0	3.8	0.5	2,028	+0.2
	Communist (NI)	1	0	0	0	0	—	0.2	623	-2.6
	Socialist Republican	1	1	0	0	0	1.9	0.0	0	-1.5

All parties shown. The only Socialist Republican Party candidate was elected unopposed. Electorate 846,719 (477,354 in contested seats); Turnout 79.3% (378,458).

Only 32 of the 52 seats (62%) were actually contested.

In 20 of the 52 seats (38%), only one candidate stood and they were elected unopposed without any votes cast. The vast majority of the MPs elected without a contest were Ulster Unionists.

• MPs elected in the Northern Ireland general election, 1949

• Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results Archived 16 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine