Vitty was elected to Castlereagh Borough Council for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 1981, despite only taking 35 first preference votes, as he received transfers from Peter Robinson.
[1] He was then elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1982, as a member of the Democratic Unionist Party for Belfast East - having won only 235 first preference votes.
[citation needed] Vitty left the DUP and joined the UK Unionist Party (UKUP) in the 1990s.
[5] Subsequently, he rejoined the DUP and was co-opted to fill a vacancy on Castlereagh Borough Council in December 2010.
At the 2014 local elections, he stood in the Ormiston District Electoral Area of Belfast City Council, but was unsuccessful.