Sinn Féin spent the least of the four main parties fighting last year's British general election in Northern Ireland while the Ulster Unionist Party spent the most, according to official figures from the Electoral Commission of Northern Ireland.
Overall the UUP spent more than £380,000 on the election, but only one of its candidates, Lady Sylvia Hermon, was elected to the House of Commons. Sinn Féin's election spending at headquarters and individual constituency level totalled over £137,000, the commission report, Election 2005: Campaign Spending, says.
In total, the DUP spent £225,000, while overall it cost the SDLP £242,000 to fight the election, the report also shows.
The commission's UK-wide report reveals that centrally Sinn Féin, which won five seats, spent £44,212 while the UUP spent £251,119. The SDLP, which won three seats, spent £154,089 while the Democratic Unionist Party, which won nine seats, spent £107,133.
All four main parties spent within the limits allowed by the commission although independent candidate Dr Kieran Deeny, who campaigned in West Tyrone where Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty held his seat, was found to have spent £1,414 over his allowance of £11,338.
In each of the North's 18 constituencies, candidates were each allowed to spend between approximately £9,600 and just over £12,300, depending on the size of the electorate and whether the constituency is urban or rural.
The report shows that the SDLP spent a total of £88,000 at constituency level. Sinn Féin spent £92,000, the DUP spent £118,000 and the UUP spent £129,000.
A Sinn Féin spokesman said two of the reasons that could account for the party being ranked bottom of the list in terms of expenditure by the North's four main parties was because it operated a very tight advertising budget and because it had a strong voluntary activist base that carried out work such as erecting and taking down posters, that some other parties may have had to pay for.
The head of the commission's Northern Ireland office, Séamus McGee, said the report was based on election spending figures provided by the parties, and by the annual audited reports provided by the parties. These figures were in turn checked for compliance by the commission.
