Elections to Belfast City Council were held on 30 May 1973 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used eight district electoral areas to elect a total of 51 councillors.
The elections were the first following the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland, brought about by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 & Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, which replaced the previous FPTP ward system with a new system of proportional representation using multi-member district electoral areas.
The Ulster Unionist Party maintained its position as the largest party, winning just short of a majority, and William Christie continued as Lord Mayor.
Results by party PartySeats±First Pref. votesFPv%±% 2583,65850.7 822,08113.4 718,82711.4 29,0465.5 26,5844.0United Loyalist26,2743.8 24,9973.0 23,8602.3Loyalist Coalition14,8232.9 02,5941.6Independent Unionist Loyalist09670.6Independent Ratepayer06100.4 02110.1 01720.1Non-Party0880.1 01800.1Totals51168,667100.0—
Districts summary
|- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance !colspan=2 bgcolor=""| SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | NILP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | RC !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Area A |bgcolor="40BFF5"|55.4 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|4 |10.6 |1 |5.2 |0 |6.1 |1 |0.0 |0 |8.2 |0 |14.5 |1 |7 |- |align="left"|Area B |bgcolor="40BFF5"|62.3 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|5 |19.6 |1 |0.0 |0 |5.4 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |12.7 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Area C |bgcolor="40BFF5"|54.7 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|4 |22.8 |2 |4.5 |0 |4.7 |0 |2.4 |0 |0.0 |0 |10.9 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Area D |7.0 |0 |19.3 |1 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|44.5 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|4 |4.0 |0 |18.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |7.0 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Area E |bgcolor="40BFF5"|39.9 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|1 |7.4 |1 |7.3 |0 |10.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |13.5 |1 |21.7 |2 |6 |- |align="left"|Area F |bgcolor="40BFF5"|49.2 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |3.8 |0 |18.7 |1 |2.5 |0 |16.1 |1 |7.5 |1 |2.2 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Area G |bgcolor="40BFF5"|56.6 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |3.3 |1 |16.5 |1 |3.9 |0 |4.8 |0 |0.0 |0 |14.9 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Area H |bgcolor="40BFF5"|62.0 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|5 |15.9 |1 |14.8 |1 |4.7 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |2.6 |0 |7 |- |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |50.7 |25 |13.4 |8 |11.4 |7 |5.5 |2 |4.0 |2 |2.3 |2 |12.7 |5 |51
Districts results
Area A
1973: 4 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Vanguard, 1 x NILP
Area B
1973: 5 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x United Loyalist
Area C
1973: 4 x UUP, 2 x Alliance
Area D
1973: 4 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Republican Clubs
Area E
1973: 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x NILP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x United Loyalist, 1 x Independent Unionist
Area F
1973: 3 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Republican Clubs
Area G
1973: 3 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist
Area H
1973: 5 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP
References