The 1990 by-election in Upper Bann was caused by the death of the sitting

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Harold McCusker James Harold McCusker (7 February 1940 – 12 February 1990) was a Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist Party politician who served as the Deputy Leader of the UUP Assembly Group from 1982 to 1986. Early life The younger son of Jim and Lily McCu ...

on 2 February 1990. The by-election was especially notable for three reasons. Firstly, the

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

candidate in the election, Sheena Campbell, was murdered by the UVF in Belfast on 16 October 1992. Eleven candidates stood in the by-election, which to date is the record for a parliamentary election in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Secondly, amongst the eleven were candidates for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

and the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP), both contesting parliamentary elections in Northern Ireland for the first time since the "Equal Citizenship" campaign had sought to get the major UK parties to organise in the province. Finally the successful Ulster Unionist candidate was

David Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He was ...

, who five years later would become the leader of the party. The SDP candidate took only 154 votes, and finished in eleventh and last place – the worst performance in a by-election by any party with MPs sitting in the House of Commons since the

English National Party English National Party has been the name of various political parties of England, which have commonly called for a separate parliament for England. The original ENP History The English National Party (ENP) was founded as the John Hampden New ...

in the

1976 Rotherham by-election The Rotherham by-election of 24 June 1976 was held after the death of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Brian O'Malley. Labour held on to the seat in the by-election. Results Aftermath The result was significant as it meant that the ...

Results

General Election result, 1987

References

External links

A Vision Of Britain Through Time
(Constituency elector numbers) {{By-elections to the 50th UK Parliament Upper Bann by-election Upper Bann by-election Upper Bann by-election 20th century in County Armagh 20th century in County Down By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Armagh constituencies By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Down constituencies