Elections to Magherafelt District Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 16 councillors.
Election results
Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.
Districts summary
|- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Sinn Féin !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Magherafelt Town |24.9 |1 |23.2 |2 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|39.0 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |11.4 |1 |1.5 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Moyola |bgcolor="#008800"|34.1 |bgcolor="#008800"|2 |19.2 |1 |22.0 |1 |19.9 |1 |4.8 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Sperrin |bgcolor="#008800"|51.0 |bgcolor="#008800"|2 |25.3 |2 |9.9 |0 |12.1 |1 |1.7 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |36.5 |5 |22.6 |5 |20.6 |3 |14.3 |3 |6.0 |0 |16
District results
Magherafelt Town
1993: 2 x DUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP 1997: 2 x DUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP 1993-1997 Change: No change
Moyola
1993: 2 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x SDLP 1997: 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x SDLP 1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from DUP
Sperrin
1993: 2 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP, 1 x UUP 1997: 2 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP, 1 x UUP 1993-1997 Change: No change
References