Sinn Fein has achieved a major victory as they become the largest party in local government in Northern Ireland for the first time, gaining 144 seats across 11 councils. This is an increase of 39 from the last council election in 2019, and they have overtaken the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who won the same number of seats as in 2019. Sinn Fein now holds the largest representation in six local government areas, including Belfast, while the DUP will have the largest representation in five councils. They secured 30.9% of first preference votes, ahead of the DUP on 23.3%. The cross-community Alliance Party also increased its representation on councils by winning 67 seats, an increase of 14. However, it was a disappointing election for the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP, with both parties suffering significant losses.
The elections took place against the backdrop of the continuing stalemate at Stormont, with Northern Ireland not having a functioning local government for over a year since the DUP withdrew from the power-sharing executive in protest at the terms of the post-Brexit trading arrangements. Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said on Saturday that the results are “momentous” and show that the public want the power-sharing institutions to resume at Stormont. She said the boycott of the Stormont Assembly by the DUP “cannot go on” and that “an Executive must be formed.”
The DUP believes that the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit deal has created a customs border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, weakening the province’s place within the United Kingdom. In February, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak agreed with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on a so-called Windsor Framework, which would significantly reduce the number of post-Brexit checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain. The DUP said this represented “significant progress,” but that it does not deal with some of the “fundamental problems at the heart of our current difficulties.”
Commenting on the election results, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted that his party had polled strongly, but said the unionist community needs to learn lessons from the election. Donaldson has stated that while the DUP vote has held up well, they need to do better and that unionism as a whole needs to win more seats.