As we mentioned on Friday, the local elections in Northern Ireland took place two weeks later than the ones in England, so we have been able to focus this week on the progress of our sister party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.
These are four year all-in, all-out elections using STV. Wards are grouped into District Electoral Areas which elect five, six or seven councillors, depending on size, so understandably, the count has been quite lengthy in some areas. In total 462 seats have been contested across 11 local councils, and the count was only completed at around midnight last night. I now understand why they moved the elections from the Thursday before the Coronation.
The headline news is that Sinn Féin has surged into a clear lead, with the Alliance also increasing its vote share substantially. The final status of the parties is:
- Sinn Féin: 144 (up 38)
- DUP: 122 (no change)
- Alliance: 67 (up 14)
- UUP: 54 (down 21)
- SDLP: 39 (down 20)
- Others: 36 (down 12)
This pattern is also reflected in the first preference vote share, where the Alliance lies in 3rd place behind Sinn Féin and the DUP, having leapfrogged the UUP and SDLP from fifth position in 2019.
The Alliance’s best result was in Lisburn and Castlereagh, just to the south of Belfast, where they have 13 seats, just one behind the DUP’s 14.
The big story in Lisburn and Castlereagh was success for Alliance, which gained four seats to finish with a total of 13. The UUP had a bad day, dropping from 11 seats to just six. https://t.co/O0CEK5nGq7 pic.twitter.com/ypGkim9Iff
— BBC News NI (@BBCNewsNI) May 20, 2023
Congratulations on a great showing all round!
New and bigger North Down Alliance Councillor Team with Stephen, Connie & I
Thanks to everyone who voted Alliance, returning Alliance as largest party in North Down, delivering big breakthroughs – doubling reps in Bangor Central + Bangor East & Donaghadee #AllianceWorks pic.twitter.com/3sMFHPCYkB
— Andrew Muir MLA (@AndrewMuirNI) May 20, 2023
Meet the Alliance Party's five Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Councillors @BBCNewsNI @allianceparty #LE23 pic.twitter.com/hEDSfxWxlB
— Maria McCann (@BBCmariamc) May 20, 2023
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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Jason Connor
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3 Comments
Northern Ireland seems to be shifting towards a 3 Party system, unfortunately the consolidation is mostly toward the extremes within both “Unionism” & “Nationalism”.
Indeed Paul,
While the relative peace brought to Northern Ireland by the Good Friday Agreement is very welcomed, it’s clear downside is the continuing polarisation of the political system its structures have created. The moderate SDLP has been in steady decline, replaced by Sinn Fein, and the UU is steadily being replaced by the more strident DUP.
The progress made by our friends in the Alliance is very welcome, but overall the broader non-extremist middle ground has shrunk once again.
Someone will no doubt do a proper demographic comparison but it looks like:
The number of unionist votes has declined partly due to demographics and partly due to a lower turnout and maybe an unwillingness to transfer.
Those left have moved away from the irrelevant looking UUP and more have moved to APNI than DUP and TUV.
The number of republican votes has gone up again partly due to demographics and partly a higher turnout.
There has been a big swing from SDLP, republican independants and left wing nominally non-sectarian parties to SF. This may be down to the perception of SF becoming more acceptable as they leave their terrorist past further behind. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the voters themselves have become more extreme.