European Parliament election, 1999 (UK)

The European Parliament Election, 1999 was the UK part of the European Parliament election 1999

European Parliament election, 1999

The European Parliament Election, 1999 was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory and where...

. It was held on 10 June. It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

using a system of proportional representation. The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999

European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999

The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its long title is "An Act to amend the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1978 so as to alter the method used in Great Britain for electing Members of the European Parliament to make other amendments...

introduced the Party List system

Party-list proportional representation

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...

, using a Closed list

Closed list

Closed list describes the variant of party-list proportional representation where voters can only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected...

. Single Transferable Vote

Single transferable vote

The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

was retained in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. The Act also introduced the new twelve electoral regions. The turnout was again the lowest in Europe, the lowest ever for a European election in the UK.

The Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

doubled the number of seats from last European election. Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

saw their 62 seats reduced to just 29. The Liberal Democrats saw their number of seats increase to 10 from just 2 in the previous election. The UK Independence Party, Green Party

Green Party of England and Wales

The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...

and Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru

' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...

won their first ever seats in the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

. These changes are largely due to the move from proportional representation from first past the post, introduced by the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999

European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999

Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

: 23.3% (EU average: 49.5%)
Overall votes cast: 10,681,082

England, Scotland and Wales

Source : UK Office of the European Parliament

Note: Percentages are approximate
> > > > > > > > > > >

Party		Votes	Seats	Loss/Gain	Share of Vote (%)	Share of Seats(%)
3,578,218	36	+18	35.77	42.9
2,803,821	29	-33	28.03	34.5
1,266,549	10	+8	12.66	11.9
696,057	3	+3	6.96	3.6
625,378	2	+2	6.25	2.4
268,528	2	0	2.68	2.4
185,235	2	+2	1.85	2.4
138,097	0	0	1.38	0
102,647	0	0	1.13	0
93,051	0	0	0.93	0
86,749	0	0	0.87	0
	Others	157,944	0	0	1.57	0
	Total	10,002,273	84	0	100	100

All parties with more than 50,000 votes shown

Total votes cast - 10,002,273.

Northern Ireland

> > > > > > > >

European Parliament election 1999 European Parliament election, 1999 The European Parliament Election, 1999 was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory and where... : Northern Ireland
Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Loss/Gain	First Preference Votes
Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Loss/Gain	Number	% of vote
Ian Paisley Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...	1	0	192,762	28.4
John Hume John Hume John Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....	1	0	190,731	28.1
Jim Nicholson Jim Nicholson (UK politician) James Frederick "Jim" Nicholson is a Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist Party politician, who is currently a Member of the European Parliament .-Career:...	1	0	119,507	17.6
Mitchel McLaughlin Mitchel McLaughlin John Mitchel McLaughlin is the former General Secretary of Sinn Féin and an MLA.McLaughlin was born in Derry city, Northern Ireland and educated at Long Tower Boys School, Derry and Christian Brothers Technical College, Derry....	0	0	117,643	17.3
David Ervine David Ervine David Ervine was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party .-Biography:...	0	0	22,494	3.31
Robert McCartney Robert McCartney (politician) Robert Law McCartney QC is a Northern Ireland barrister and former leader of the UK Unionist Party.He was initially a member of the Ulster Unionist Party but was expelled in June 1987 when he refused to withdraw from the general election of that year...	0	0	20,283	2.98
Sean Neeson Séan Neeson Seán Neeson is a politician in Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2001.- Education and early life :...	0	0	14,391	2.12
James Anderson	0	0	998	0.15
Turnout					678,809

Party Leaders in June 1999

Conservative - William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
Labour - Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
Liberal Democrat - Paddy Ashdown
Paddy Ashdown
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC , usually known as Paddy Ashdown, is a British politician and diplomat....
UK Independence Party - Michael Holmes
Michael Holmes (politician)
Michael Holmes is a former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party and MEP for South West England.Holmes was elected leader of UKIP in 1997. In 1999 he and two other UKIP candidates were elected to the European Parliament. The following year, he stepped down from the leadership as a result...
Green - Jean Lambert
Jean Lambert
Jean Denise Lambert is an English politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the London Region. A member of the Green Party of England and Wales, she has been an MEP since 1999...

and Mike Woodin
Mike Woodin
Michael Edward Woodin was the Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales and a city councillor for Oxford from 1994 to 2004...

(Principal Speakers)
SNP - Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
Plaid Cymru - Dafydd Wigley
Dafydd Wigley
Dafydd Wigley, Baron Wigley is a Welsh politician. He served as Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001 and as an Assembly Member for Caernarfon from 1999 until 2003. He was leader of the Plaid Cymru party from 1991 to 2000...
Pro-European Conservative Party - John Stevens
John Stevens (politician)
John Christopher Courtenay Stevens is an English politician. A Conservative Member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999, he contested the Buckingham constituency in the 2010 general election as an independent, against Commons speaker John Bercow.-Background:Stevens was educated at...
BNP - John Tyndall
John Tyndall (politician)
John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British politician who was prominently associated with several fascist/neo-Nazi sects. However, he is best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party in 1982.The most prominent figure in British nationalism...

DUP - Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
SDLP - John Hume
John Hume
John Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....
UUP - David Trimble
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC , is a politician from Northern Ireland. He served as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party , was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland , and was a Member of the British Parliament . He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party...
Sinn Féin - Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...

External links

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England, Scotland and Wales

Northern Ireland

Party Leaders in June 1999

See also

External links