Sinn Fein has become the largest party in Northern Ireland local government for the first time after securing 144 seats in the latest polls.
The party, which now has 22 seats more than the former frontrunners - the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - has also secured a majority at Fermanagh & Omagh DC while the rest of the region’s 10 local authorities remain under no overall control.
Sinn Fein’s share of the vote surged by nearly 8% while the DUP’s dropped by almost 1%, with the Alliance Party becoming the third party of Northern Irish local government after picking up an extra 14 seats, which is likely to make it an important force at councils where the unionists are the largest party.
It comes after Sinn Fein focused its election campaign on sorting out the stalemate over regional government at Stormont.
Political wrangling over the post-Brexit trading arrangements mean the Stormont government is not currently functioning.
A former senior local government official in the region said: ‘Community level and local government level politics desperately need to push for localisation of public services as Stormont’s stalemate continues to make the region uncompetitive and inert.’
The elections were originally due to take place alongside those in England earlier this month but were postponed to avoid a clash with the King’s coronation as results take several days to process.
This article was originally published by The MJ (£).
