 1,191,009 people were eligible to vote, up 13,040 from the 1997 general election.68.63% of eligible voters turned out, up 1.2 percentage points from the last general election.The election resulted in a reduction in the share of vote and the number of seats won by the Ulster Unionist Party, though the UUP did remain the largest political party in Northern Ireland, and even managed to regain the seats of South Antrim after it was lost in a by-election in 2000 to the Democratic Unionist Party and North Down from the UK Unionist Party.