144 council seats compared to 122. That is the difference that, after a 48-hour vote count, has placed Sinn Féin as the main force in the local administrations of Northern Ireland, having surpassed, for the first time, the pro-British UDP in the local elections of the province held last Thursday.
The sorpasso has occurred thanks to the fact that the nationalist formation has increased its loot by 39 departments compared to its results four years ago, while the DUP has remained anchored in the same ones that it reaped in 2019.
It is also worth noting the advance of the Alliance Party, multi-denominational and of the liberal center - which already became the third regional formation in the last appointment with the polls - and which obtained 67 positions, reinforcing its representation with an increase of 14.
The big loser in the elections is undoubtedly the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which suffered significant losses to a "disappointing" 54 council seats, followed by the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SLDP, nationalist), with 39. While the remaining 36 they went to the rest of the formations.
In this way, Sinn Féin is the party with the largest representation in six local administrations in the province, including Belfast, while the DUP will have the largest representation in five departments.
Bolstered by what happened, the deputy chairwoman of the former political arm of the now dormant IRA, Michelle O'Neill, urged the DUP last night, with the majority of the results known, to end their boycott at the Stormont Power-Sharing Assembly.
The DUP's rejection of the commercial arrangements agreed by London and Brussels on the post-Brexit Northern Ireland lace, first included in the controversial Protocol and now in the so-called Windsor Framework Agreement, has kept the Belfast Executive in limbo since February of 2022.
O'Neill called the result of the local elections "historic" and said his party's campaign had focused "on positive leadership, on restoring the executive, on making politics work, and that has resonated with the electorate".
