The successful candidate was the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died twenty-six days later.

When a second general election was held in October Frank Maguire stood as an Independent Republican with backing from all nationalists, while West was the sole unionist.

Maguire gained 32,795 votes (51.8%) to West's 30,285 (47.9%) and 185 (0.3%) for Alan Evans, standing for the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist–Leninist).

[7] On the last day for nominations the party executive decided not to stand, explaining that they wished to concentrate on local government elections which would take place in May; there was speculation that the executive did not share the local party's confidence and feared a poor result.

Currie railed against the SDLP's decision not to stand, but the result was a highly polarised contest between unionism and Irish republicanism.

New legislation was passed by Parliament to bar "convicted felons" from standing for election; as a result another hunger striker could not be nominated, so Owen Carron stood as "Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner".