2023 Northern Ireland local elections

2023 Northern Ireland local elections
← 2019 18 May 2023
All 11 districts, 462 council seats
Turnout54.7%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Naomi Long MLA.jpg
Leader Michelle O'Neill[n 1] Jeffrey Donaldson Naomi Long
Party Sinn Féin DUP Alliance
Last election 105 122 53
Seats won 144 122 67
Seat change Increase 39 Steady Increase 14
Popular vote 230,793 173,033 99,251
Percentage 30.9% 23.3% 13.3%
Swing Increase 7.7% Decrease 0.8% Increase 1.8%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Doug Beattie.png
Colum Eastwood SDLP Conference 2023.jpg
JimAllister (cropped).jpg
Leader Doug Beattie Colum Eastwood Jim Allister
Party UUP SDLP TUV
Last election 75 59 6
Seats won 54 39 9
Seat change Decrease 21 Decrease 20 Increase 3
Popular vote 81,282 64,996 29,202
Percentage 10.9% 8.7% 3.9%
Swing Decrease 3.2% Decrease 3.3% Increase 1.7%
  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
  Eamonn McCann
PUP
Leader Mal O'Hara Eamonn McCann[n 2] Billy Hutchinson
Party Green (NI) People Before Profit PUP
Last election 8 5 3
Seats won 5 2 1
Seat change Decrease 3 Decrease 3 Decrease 2
Popular vote 12,692 8,059 2,103
Percentage 1.7% 1.0% 0.3
Swing Decrease 0.4% Decrease 0.4% Decrease0.5
Results by DEA (District Electoral Area)

Local elections were held in Northern Ireland on 18 May 2023.[2] The elections were delayed by two weeks to avoid overlapping with the coronation of King Charles III.[3] Following the elections, Sinn Féin became the largest party in local government for the first time.[4] It also marked the first time that nationalist parties had garnered a greater share of the vote than unionist parties, however, despite this, there were more unionist councillors elected than nationalists.[5]


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  1. ^ "Registration Summary". The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Local government elections in Northern Ireland". www.electoralcommission.org.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  3. ^ "NI council election moved to avoid coronation clash". BBC News. 21 December 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  4. ^ "NI council elections 2023: Sinn Féin largest party in NI local government". BBC News. 20 May 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  5. ^ Lowry, Ben (22 May 2023). "Nationalists win the most votes, even when smaller independent unionist candidates are included". Belfast Newsletter. Retrieved 22 May 2023.