SINN FÉIN and the DUP have underscored their dominance at Stormont with strong performances in the local government elections. The Ulster Unionists and the SDLP were again the big losers.
Counting in the poll for the 26 councils concluded last night with the DUP winning 175 of the 582 council seats, marginally down on last time, and Sinn Féin on 138 – a rise of 12 seats.
Alliance also polled well, winning 44 – a record number of seats for the party – and increasing its share of seats by a fraction under 50 per cent.
Party leader David Ford said last night: “I am absolutely delighted with our results. Not only have we won an extra 14 council seats, we also very significantly increased our vote across Northern Ireland from the last council election. This is our best local election result since 1981 in terms of vote share.
“We now have more seats than the UUP and the SDLP in the greater Belfast area where half the population lives.”
The UUP total is down to 99 from the 115 seats the party won at the last council elections in 2005. Ulster Unionists now hold only three seats on the 51-member Belfast City Council where it once dominated.
Alliance will continue to hold the balance of power in City Hall but with a significantly strengthened hand.
In neighbouring Castlereagh, the DUP lost overall control of the borough council while the Alliance Party made significant gains. It responded by announcing a working pact with the UUP to ensure unionist domination. The move was roundly condemned by Alliance and the SDLP.
The SDLP won 87 seats, down 14 seats, although it managed to hold on in some of its key areas. The party won 101 seats in the last council election.
There were some positive indications for candidates from the smaller republican organisations opposed to Sinn Féin and the Stormont institutions.
In West Belfast, Éirígí candidates polled more than 2,000 first preferences while an Independent republican won more than 600 first preferences in Derry.
Gary Donnelly, a member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, regarded as being the political wing of the Real IRA, said yesterday he was “more than happy” with his first preference vote in the Cityside ward in Derry, despite not succeeding in being elected to Derry City Council.
Mr Donnelly, who stood as an Independent republican candidate polled 612 first preference votes, almost one in nine of the total valid poll in the ward.
He finished fifth in the five-seater ward in terms of first preference votes and was only eliminated from the election on the sixth and final late night count.
Mr Donnelly’s vote surprised many observers. It was a 20 per cent increase on his 2005 council election vote and came the month after the murder of Ronan Kerr in Omagh. It also came after a Real IRA spokesman pledged at an Easter commemoration rally in Derry’s city cemetery to increase the paramilitary group’s campaign of violence against police officers.
“I did not stand on a 32 County Sovereignty Committee ticket, I stood in defence of my community work and on working class issues,” he said.
“I have been challenged many times to prove I have a mandate, well the proof is now there and my detractors have got their answer,” Mr Donnelly added.