Elections to Down District Council were held on 21 May 1997 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 23 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 ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Sinn Féin !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | NIWC !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Ballynahinch |bgcolor="#99FF66"|46.8 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |24.0 |1 |24.9 |1 |4.3 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Downpatrick |bgcolor="#99FF66"|61.0 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|5 |13.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |10.8 |1 |0.0 |0 |15.0 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Newcastle |bgcolor="#99FF66"|47.2 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |17.6 |1 |9.4 |0 |14.2 |1 |7.4 |1 |4.2 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Rowallane |26.6 |1 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|43.9 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |15.1 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |14.4 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |46.0 |12 |24.1 |6 |11.9 |2 |7.6 |2 |1.9 |1 |8.5 |0 |23
Districts results
Ballynahinch
1993: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP 1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP 1993-1997 Change: SDLP gain from UUP
Downpatrick
1993: 6 x SDLP, 1 x UUP 1997: 5 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP 1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP
Newcastle
1993: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP 1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Women's Coalition 1993-1997 Change: Sinn Féin and Women's Coalition gain from SDLP and DUP
Rowallane
1993: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1993-1997 Change: No change
References