In the 1918 general elections the newly reformed Sinn Féin party had secured a large majority of Irish seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Because many seats won by Sinn Féin were uncontested, and the elections used the "first past the post" system, Sinn Féin in all contested seats gained slightly less than 50% of the vote. This electoral success provided a propaganda coup for Sinn Féin, and so the British Government introduced the Local Government Act 1919, which allowed for parliamentary elections by proportional representation in all of Ireland for the first time, by the system of the single transferable vote for multi-member electoral areas. The government hoped that the new system would reveal less-than-monolithic support for Sinn Féin, and it was first tested in the 1920 local elections. Some Sinn Féin members had also helped to form the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland in the different circumstances of 1911. By 1920 the party was in a far stronger electoral position, and had no reason to oppose proportional representation, and it treated these elections as internal Irish elections for local authorities that were expected to swear allegiance to the new Irish Republic. The electoral method introduced by the 1919 Act is still used in elections in the Republic of Ireland and most elections in Northern Ireland today.
January 1920
The 1919 act mandated elections for all urban councils except Sligo Corporation, which had been reconstituted and elected in 1919. The cumulative first preference votes in the 1920 urban elections were:
Party
% votes
Sinn Féin
27
Unionists
27
Labour Party
18
Other Irish nationalists
15
Independents
14
Excluding the more unionist province of Ulster, the urban results were:
Party
% votes
Sinn Féin
41
Independents
21
Labour Party
17
Other nationalists
14
Unionists
7
The 15 January elections saw Sinn Féin, Labour, and other nationalists winning control of 172 of Ireland's 206 borough and urban district councils. The subsequent mayoral elections on 30 January saw a Unionist elected for Belfast, a Nationalist in Derry, Labour in Wexford, and Sinn Féin in eight boroughs.
County boroughs
Other boroughs
Urban districts
Town commissioners
Total
Electorate
293,410
13,367
154,632
13,583
474,992
Votes
198,487
9,968
112,844
10,204
331,503
Turnout %
67.7
74.6
73.0
75.1
69.8
Spoilt %
2.57
2.82
3.03
4.51
2.79
Electoral areas
40
12
204
39
295
Candidates
637
150
2,023
315
3,125
Seats
308
84
1,148
195
1,735
Uncontested areas
1
2
21
12
36
In Westport, only 4 candidates were nominated for the 18 seats on the urban district council, and only 2 of those accepted office. Since 5 councillors was a quorum, Mayo County Council mandated a special election for 15 March, but only one extra candidate was nominated.
June 1920
The rural elections showed a much greater level of support for Sinn Féin in its core support area. It took control of 338 out of 393 local government bodies, county councils, boards of guardians and rural district councils across the whole island. The county and rural district elections saw virtually no contests outside of Ulster. Sinn Féin's success allowed them to seize control of virtually every county council and rural district council outside of Ulster. Sinn Féin success in the 12 June rural and county elections extended even to Ulster, with the party winning control of 36 of Ulsters 55 rural districts.
