Northern Ireland Local Elections 2023: Results day two - 100 seats to go as Sinn Fein charge continues - Belfast Telegraph

UUP leader Doug Beattie admits election has been ‘brutal at times' for his party, while SDLP leader Colum Eastwood vows to battle on

At 2.20pm on Saturday they had 128 seats, well ahead of the DUP (109) and on track to be the biggest party.

Ms O’Neill said Sinn Fein were on course for a "momentous result" that reflects a "positive campaign" by its candidates and activists.

Speaking at the Foyle Arena, she told the BBC: "We have work to do but it's been a very positive result for the party so far.”

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says his party’s vote has held up “extremely well” throughout Northern Ireland, adding: “It’s a strong performance, in very difficult and challenging circumstances.”

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says his party’s vote has held up “extremely well” throughout Northern Ireland

Speaking in Belfast, Sir Jeffrey said unionism had to take a “long, hard look” at how it manages elections, citing the “splintering” of the unionist vote and turnout in some unionist heartlands.

“These are issues that we do need to address and I am happy to sit down with my fellow unionists and examine these issues and look at how greater cooperation can beat a pathway towards more success for unionism in general,” he said.

'It was brutal at times' - Doug Beattie reflects on the election results for the UUP

It came as UUP leader Doug Beattie admitted the election had been “brutal” for his party at times.

Mr Beattie and the SDLP’s Colum Eastwood have been reacting to a series of losses, but both said they remain optimistic that they can turn things around going forward.

Speaking to this newspaper in Bangor, Mr Beattie admitted the election has been difficult, and some “truly outstanding” councillors have lost their seats.

“You can see it within that difficult result that we’ve got - and I’ve said this is brutal at times - but within that difficult result you can see where we need to go.

“One of the key things I wanted to do in this election was to get some new faces back into the Ulster Unionist Party as councillors and we are getting it now.”

He said the UUP had to be “representative of the society that we want to vote for us” – which meant more female, younger members.

Meanwhile, Mr Eastwood conceded the SDLP is having a "difficult" election and says he takes "responsibility" – but stressed he has no plans to leave his position as leader.

Counting is entering its final stages at the various count centres as the make-up of Northern Ireland’s council chambers takes shape.

The UUP’s Alan Barr was the first to claim a seat for Braid in Mid and East Antrim on Saturday, followed by independent candidate Gary Donnelly and Sinn Féin’s Aisling Hutton in The Moor in Derry & Strabane.

Three of the 11 councils finished counting overnight. Lisburn and Castlereagh was first to finish, followed by Mid Ulster. Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon went on to 4.30am with a nail-biting finish between Sinn Fein and Alliance for the last seat in Portadown.

Voter turnout was up slightly on 2019’s local election, with 755,263 people placing their vote compared to 687,734. It appears that share is up in areas which would be regarded as predominantly nationalist/republican and down slightly in areas viewed as unionist majority.

It is the first electoral test for the parties since last year's Assembly election and takes place against the backdrop of the Stormont stalemate, with the powersharing institutions not operating as part of a DUP protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

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2023-05-20 12:50:00Z
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