The SDLP and Ulster Unionists were the highest spenders in last November's Assembly elections, figures released yesterday show. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
Despite losing seats to Sinn Féin and the DUP they spent £234,911 and £147,867 respectively.
According to the Electoral Commission, the independent body which monitors elections and political parties, all parties adhered to strict new guidelines on election expenditure.
Together the Northern parties spent £1,477,625. The 17 parties that fielded candidates spent £648,247 centrally, while 256 candidates contesting the 108 Assembly seats spent £829,378.
These figures represent a substantial underspending by candidates as all individual election campaigns came in well under the legal expenditure limit.
The bulk of election-spending was carried out by the four main parties, the SDLP, UUP, Sinn Féin and the DUP. Their bills accounted for some 72 per cent of the total. Candidates nominated by the big four spent £645,949. In contrast, the 77 candidates fielded by the smaller organisations spent a total of £183,430 between them. The smaller parties, although providing 30 per cent of the candidates, spent only 20 per cent of the total election expenditure.
What the Commission calls "individual candidates", those referred to as independents or with no description on the ballot paper, spent a total of £67,552 or 7 per cent of the total.
Lord Kilclooney the former Mr John Taylor, spent the most on an individual campaign. He spent £9,432 on the defence of his Strangford seat.
Mr Alex Maskey, the former Lord Mayor of Belfast, spent £7,408 gaining a seat for Sinn Féin in South Belfast, having switched from West Belfast which he represented in the previous Assembly.
In North Antrim, the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, spent £3,347 defending his seat - just under half the permissible limit.
The expenditure differences between the SDLP and Sinn Féin were substantial. Each seat cost the SDLP £13,050 more than that of each Sinn Féin seat.
The DUP appears to have spent its election funds effectively securing the most seats but coming in third on the spending league table. The party won 30 seats, before the defection of three UUP members, and spent £147,867.
The Commission noted that Sinn Féin's reported expenditure suggested it concentrated its resources on individual candidates. In contrast, the SDLP and Ulster Unionist parties, who lost ground in the election, concentrated on raising their profiles by spending heavily on advertising and media campaigns.