1985 Down District Council election

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All 23 seats to Down District Council
12 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party
Party	SDLP	UUP	DUP
Seats won	10	7	3
Seat change	Increase 1	Increase 2	Steady 0
	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party
Party	Sinn Féin	Workers' Party	Alliance
Seats won	2	1	0
Seat change	Increase 2	Steady 0	Decrease 1
	Seventh party
Party	Independent Labour
Seats won	0
Seat change	Decrease 1

Elections to Down District Council were held on 15 May 1985 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.

Down District Council Election Result 1985^[1]

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SDLP	10	1	0	Increase1	43.5	41.6	9,851	Decrease0.5
	UUP	7	2	0	Increase2	30.4	30.3	7,167	Increase3.0
	DUP	3	0	0	Steady0	13.0	12.2	2,886	Decrease0.8
	Sinn Féin	2	2	0	Increase2	0.0	6.5	1,549	New
	Workers' Party	1	0	0	Steady0	4.3	4.2	993	Decrease2.3
	Alliance	0	0	1	Decrease1	0.0	5.2	1,237	Decrease3.2

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Results of the Down District Council election, 1985
by district^[1]

Ward	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	%	Cllrs	Total Cllrs
	SDLP		UUP		DUP		Sinn Féin		Workers Party		Others
Ballynahinch	40.5	2	33.3	2	18.9	1	0.0	0	0.0	0	7.3	0	5
Downpatrick	57.4	4	16.3	1	0.0	0	9.9	1	9.1	1	7.3	0	7
Newcastle	40.8	3	22.1	1	12.0	1	14.0	1	5.8	0	5.3	0	6
Rowallane	22.4	1	55.7	3	21.9	1	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	5
Total	41.6	10	30.3	7	12.2	3	6.5	1	4.2	1	5.2	0	23

1985: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP

Ballynahinch - 5 seats^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
SDLP	James Magee*	19.00%	1,020
UUP	William Brown *	18.70%	1,004
DUP	Thomas Poole*	13.82%	742	742.24	971.24
UUP	James Cochrane	14.57%	782	782	822	928
SDLP	Francis Laverty*	10.36%	556	630.52	630.64	788.12	879.32
SDLP	Patrick Savage	11.10%	596	635	635	711.48	728.76
Alliance	Patrick Forde*	7.38%	396	403.44	405.44
DUP	Stanley Priestley	5.08%	273	273.12
Electorate: 7,947   Valid: 5,369 (67.56%)   Spoilt: 111   Quota: 895   Turnout: 5,480 (68.96%)

1985: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Workers' Party

Downpatrick - 7 seats^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
SDLP	Eddie McGrady *	26.92%	1,886
UUP	Samuel McCartney	16.28%	1,141
SDLP	Dermot Curran*	11.50%	806	963.68
SDLP	Sean Quinn	8.26%	579	976.44
SDLP	John Ritchie*	6.62%	464	686.48	692.72	696.34	755.7	797.94	803.1	1,008.1
Sinn Féin	Geraldine Ritchie	9.90%	694	740.44	740.83	750.22	757.22	761.84	762.84	805.15	820.15
Workers' Party	Raymond Blaney*	7.91%	554	616.1	625.85	685.18	693.86	700.46	710.85	763.26	797.26
Alliance	Michael Healy	4.40%	308	324.74	406.64	410.89	412.71	414.69	702.8	748.39	782.39
SDLP	Madge McAvoy	4.08%	286	375.1	377.83	382.91	403.77	434.13	443.45
Alliance	Margaret Donnelly	2.95%	207	212.94	373.23	375.31	376.43	377.09
Workers' Party	Alan McCullough	2.95%	82	89.56	93.07
Electorate: 10,997   Valid: 7,007 (63.72%)   Spoilt: 159   Quota: 876   Turnout: 7,166 (65.16%)

1985: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP

Newcastle - 6 seats^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
UUP	Gerald Douglas*	22.06%	1,350
Sinn Féin	Hugh McDowell	13.97%	855
DUP	Ethel Smyth*	11.99%	734	1,117.75
SDLP	Eamon O'Neill *	13.51%	827	829.52	832.08	924.08
SDLP	Michael Boyd	13.43%	822	825.24	827.16	890.16
SDLP	James Curry*	7.25%	444	446.16	448.4	487.4	516.51	843.1
Alliance	Anthony Dickinson	5.33%	326	396.92	625.36	672.04	677.01	690.15
SDLP	Peter Fitzpatrick	6.62%	405	405.72	406.36	426.72	441.53
Workers' Party	Edward O'Hagan	4.17%	255	257.52	259.76
Workers' Party	Sean Magee	1.67%	102	103.44	103.76
Electorate: 8,978   Valid: 6,120 (68.17%)   Spoilt: 135   Quota: 875   Turnout: 6,255 (69.67%)

1985: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP

Rowallane - 5 seats^[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
UUP	Dermot Nesbitt *	22.75%	1,180
UUP	Samuel Osborne*	20.59%	1,068
UUP	William Biggerstaff	12.38%	642	877.44
DUP	William Dick	14.42%	748	789.58	857.98	866.82
SDLP	Margaret Ritchie	12.13%	629	636.29	639.41	639.67	1,146.67
DUP	Trevor Lennon	7.50%	389	413.03	539.75	542.83	547.83
SDLP	Oliver Flanagan	10.24%	531	532.62	535.98	536.14
Electorate: 7,860   Valid: 5,187 (65.99%)   Spoilt: 87   Quota: 865   Turnout: 5,274 (67.10%)