Mid Ulster

Mid Ulster is a constituency represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election in 1973, which elected the then Northern Ireland Assembly. It usually shares boundaries with the Mid Ulster UK Parliament constituency. However, the boundaries of the two constituencies were slightly different from 1983 to 1986 (because the Assembly boundaries had not caught up with Parliamentary boundary changes) and from 1996 to 1997, when members of the Northern Ireland Forum had been elected from the newly drawn Parliamentary constituencies but the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected in 1992 under the 1983-95 constituency boundaries, was still in session. Members were then elected from the constituency to the 1975 Constitutional Convention, the 1982 Assembly, the 1996 Forum and then to the current Assembly from 1998. Mid Ulster is the only constituency in Northern Ireland to have returned the same number of Assembly members from the same parties at each election before that of 2017 – 3 Sinn Féin, 1 SDLP, 1 UUP and 1 DUP. The constituency's most prominent MLA has been Michelle O'Neill, who has been the First Minister of Northern Ireland since February 2024. O'Neill is the first nationalist and the second woman to hold the post. For further details of the history and boundaries of the constituency, see Mid Ulster (UK Parliament constituency).