Danny Donnelly is a
Northern Irish
Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...
politician who has been an
Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly
A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...
(MLA) for
East Antrim since
May 2022.
Political career
Early career (2011-2022)
Donnelly began his political career as a candidate for the
Green Party NI in the
2011 local elections for
Larne Borough Council
Larne Borough Council was a Local Council in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. It merged with Ballymena Borough Council and Carrickfergus Borough Council in May 2015 under the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland to become Mi ...
, before leaving the party to join Alliance. Donnelly later ran in the newly formed
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is a local authority that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaced Ballymena Borough Council, Carrickfergus Borough Council and Larne Borough Council.
History
On 2 December 2021, the councils chief ex ...
in the
2014 local elections as the Alliance candidate for the Braid constituency, but failed to be elected.
Following this, he ran alongside
Stewart Dickson in the
2016 and
2017 Northern Ireland Assembly elections, coming 9th and then 8th - but failing to be elected.
He than ran again for Mid and East Antrim District Council in the
May 2019 local election, this time as one of the two Alliance candidates for the Larne Lough constituency. Donnelly was elected on the first count, polling the second most FPVs in the constituency (1,057 votes) and earning 17.66% of the vote.
Later that year, Donnelly replaced Stewart Dickson as the Alliance Party candidate for
East Antrim. He contested the
2019 general election, increasing the Alliance Vote in the constituency by 11.7% and coming second. He reduced incumbent MP
Sammy Wilson's majority from 15,923 in 2017 to 6,716.
Member of the Legislative Assembly (2022–)
Donnelly was elected to the 5th seat in East Antrim at the
2022 Assembly election, gaining a seat for Alliance at the expense of the
UUP's
Roy Beggs
John Robert Beggs (born 20 February 1936), commonly known as Roy Beggs, is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician.
Beggs was educated at Ballyclare High School, followed by Stranmillis College, to study teacher training. After his training ...
, elected, alongside running mate Stewart Dickson, on the fifth stage. He polled 4,224 FPVs, an increase from the 1,817 votes he received in 2017.
References
External links
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Living people
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MLAs
Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027
Green Party in Northern Ireland politicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
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