THE elections were held to elect 110 delegates to the Northern Ireland Forum.
Each of the 18 Westminster constituencies elected five delegates, making 90 in all. In addition, the 10 parties receiving the highest number of votes throughout Northern Ireland each received two extra delegates. This brought the total number of Forum delegates up to 110.
The constituency elections:
People did not vote for individual candidates. Instead, the ballot paper listed the parties running in a particular constituency, and people put an X opposite the party they supported. They voted for only one party; they did not list parties in order of preference.
For the count, a quota was calculated in the same way as in the Republic. The total valid poll in each constituency was divided by the number of seats plus one (six in all cases in this election, since each constituency was a five seater) and one vote was added to the result.
Parties were entitled to one delegate for each quota they achieved on the count. Each party's vote, and its percentage of the total valid poll, is shown in the first two columns of the results panels on these pages.
The d'Hondtformula:
After the quota seats were allocated, the remaining seats were filled by applying a formula named after the man who devised it, the Belgian lawyer Victor d'Hondt (1841-1901).
This did not entail any transfer of votes from one party to another. Instead, each party's vote was divided by the number of seats it had already received in the constituency, plus one. A party which had won one seat had its vote divided by two (one seat, plus one); a party which had won two seats had its vote divided by three (two seats, plus one); and so on.
When this calculation was done, the party with the highest figure was entitled to a seat.
This process continued until all seats in the constituency were filled. Each time the d'Hondt formula was applied, a party's original vote was divided by the number of seats it had already won, plus one. These calculations are shown in the results panels; the first d'Hondt calculation is shown as Stage 2 of the electoral process, the second calculation as Stage 3, etc.
The delegates to fill the seats won by the parties were chosen from the list of candidates put forward by the parties in the particular constituency. These names were listed in order of preference: if a party won two seats, for example, the two delegates would automatically be the first two names on the party list.
The regional lists:
Finally, the votes received by each party in all 18 constituencies were totted up (see Regional Totals table on page 12). The 10 parties receiving the highest totals each received two extra delegates to be chosen from the regional lists which they had put forward.
Most parties listed candidates on their regional lists who were also on a constituency list. Anyone already elected on a constituency list was disregarded for the purposes of filling the regional list places. The two regional places went to the first two names on the list not already elected in a constituency.
The idea behind this "top up" list of 20 candidates was to give small parties, which might not win any seats in the constituencies, a chance to be represented in the Forum.