Assembly Election: Sinn Fein spent over twice as much as next largest spending party - Alliance - last May

Sinn Féin spent £178,199 fighting the election while the Alliance Party spent less than half of that with £83,166. In contrast the DUP spent only £51,916.

The campaign spending returns of the parties in the May 2022 Assembly election have been published today by The Electoral Commission.

Sixteen parties reported spending a total of £515,434 on campaigning during the regulated period, which ran from 5 January 2022 to polling day on 5 May 2022.

Jonathan Mitchell, Manager of The Electoral Commission for Northern Ireland, said: “It is vital that voters can see clearly and accurately how money is spent to influence them at elections. The publication of campaign spending information relating to the Assembly election in May is one of the ways we deliver transparency for voters, which is essential to our democratic process.”

The 10 highest spending parties at the 2022 Assembly election were:

1) £178,199 - Sinn Féin

2) £83,166 - Alliance Party

3) £61,385 - Aontú

4) £51,916 - DUP

5) £41,056 - SDLP

6) £31,812 - UUP

7) £29,858 - People Before Profit

8) £29,724 - TUV

9) £6,242 - Green Party

10) £1,952 - Socialist Party

However the volume of spending did not always guarantee a proportionate level of success in the polling booths. The final percentage of voters per party broke down as follows;-

1) 29% - Sinn Fein

2) 21.3% - DUP

3) 13.5% - Alliance

4) 11.2% - UUP

5) 9.1% - SDLP

6) 7.6% - TUV

7) 1.9% - Green Party

8) 1.5% - Aontu

9) 1.1% - People Before Profit

10) 3.7% - Others

As was much commented on at the time, Sinn Fein's vote grew 1.1% and Alliance by 4.5% while the DUP's shrunk by 6.7%.

Two parties did not submit their returns by the due date. These are being considered in line with our Enforcement Policy.

The Commission has also published headline figures on candidate spending and donations. The figures have been presented in a new interactive online tool that makes the data accessible.

The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK.