Belfast, North Ireland
After making significant gains in the Northern Ireland 2023 council elections, Sinn Féin is now the largest party for the first time in both local government as well as Stormont. When all votes were tallied, the party has gained 144 seats, an increase from the 105 council members elected in 2019.
Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill urged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to stop opposing power-sharing at Stormont. The Alliance Party, a centre-right party, is in third place behind the DUP which has 122 seats.
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The DUP's objection of the post-Brexit trading regulations has prevented the parliament and governing executive of Stormont from operating. The largest party at Stormont following the assembly elections last year was Sinn Féin, but now it also thrives at the local government level. The outcome of the council election was dubbed "historic" by O'Neill.
She said that the goal of Sinn Féin's campaign, which has seen it gain ground in places like Coleraine, Ballymena, and Lisburn, was to provide "positive leadership, it was about a restoration of the executive, it was about making politics work".
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Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the head of the DUP, stated that his party wants to increase its support in order to have a mandate to ask for modifications to the post-Brexit laws so it could return to Stormont. "That's about ensuring that Northern Ireland's ability to trade with the rest of the United Kingdom is not only respected but protected in law, and that our place in the union is restored," he said.
Preference votes, seats
The Alliance Party now has 67 councillors, up from 52. The party finished third in the 2022 assembly election as well. The first-ever council seats in Ballyclare, Fermanagh, and Limavady are included in this.
First preference votes rose for Sinn Féin, the Alliance, and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) from the 2019 council election. A 7.7% rise gave Sinn Féin a 30.9 per cent of the vote. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) both had declines in first preference vote share. The DUP's share of the vote went down to 23.3 per cent from 23.8 per cent.
Northern Ireland main parties
The main parties in Northern Ireland are Sinn Féin (SF) and the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP), which represent Irish nationalists, and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist party (UUP), who represent the unionist community. Alliance is a cross-community, centrist party. Independents run for certain seats with Green party candidates. The three major British parties—Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat—have a longstanding practice of not fielding candidates.