Electoral Performances
The party contested a succession of elections: to the brief Sunningdale Assembly, the February 1974 General Election, the October 1974 General Election and the 1975 elections to the Constitutional Convention. The 1973 Sunningdale and local council elections were fought in an informal alliance with the DUP as "the loyalist coalition" while the latter three were fought as part of the United Ulster Unionist Council, a more formal arrangement, with the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionists, where the anti-Sunningdale wing of the party was now in control.
| Vanguard election results 1973–1977 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Election | Number of votes | % of total votes | No. of members elected | Total no. of seats available | |||||||||||
| May 1973 | Local council elections | 13,305 | 1.6 | 8-10* | 524 | |||||||||||
| June 1973 | Northern Ireland Assembly | 75,709 | 11.5 | 7 | 78 | |||||||||||
| February 1974 | Westminster election | 75,944 | 10.6 | 3 | 12 | |||||||||||
| October 1974 | Westminster election | 92,622 | 13.1 | 3 | 12 | |||||||||||
| June 1975 | Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention | 83,507 | 12.7 | 14 | 78 | |||||||||||
| May 1977 | Local council elections | 8,135 | 1.5 | 5 | 524 | |||||||||||
- Note: VUPP percentage figures in the Westminster elections are for Northern Ireland only
Source:
During the 1973–75 period VUPP was able to match or even beat the DUP in several elections. However their prospect of replacing the DUP as the second party of Unionism ended as a result of events during the Constitutional Convention.
Read more about this topic: Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party
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