The Democratic Unionists have secured a marginal increase in support to win the highest share of the vote in Northern Ireland’s local election.
The result bolsters Arlene Foster, DUP leader, after months of Brexit controversy in which her defiant rejection of Theresa May’s EU withdrawal treaty put her at odds with business in the region and the farming community in party strongholds.
“It’s a good result for the DUP. It is the subject of never-ending criticism and yet the party keeps winning elections,” said Jon Tonge, professor of politics at Liverpool university and the expert on the DUP.
Mrs Foster’s fortunes were in contrast to Theresa May, whose minority government is underpinned in Westminster by the DUP votes. Mrs May suffered bruising losses over Brexit in English local elections on Thursday.
Sinn Féin support was down slightly but the party maintained its dominance of pro-Irish nationalist and republican vote.
The biggest gains were made by the cross-community Alliance party, boosting centrist politics amid a long stand-off between the DUP and Sinn Féin that has left the region without a power-sharing government for more than two years.
The DUP secured 24.1 per cent of first-preference votes, up 1 percentage point on the 2014 election. Sinn Féin won 23.2 per cent, down 0.8 percentage points.
Alliance saw its support rise to 11.5 per cent, up 4.8 percentage points, adding to gains made in England by the Liberal Democrats, its sister party.
The Ulster Unionists and the Irish nationalist SDLP each lost ground.
In the 2014 election the DUP won the most seats but Sinn Féin won a higher proportion of the vote. With 462 local council seats in contention, more than 10 per cent of the seats were still not filled by Saturday evening.
Mr Tonge said the result would boost Mrs Foster ahead of a new round of talks next week to revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
The DUP has argued that the region’s executive should take office immediately in parallel to talks with Sinn Féin to “resolve outstanding issues”, a position Sinn Féin rejects. “I think [this result] has increased the pressure on the talks process to at least get an executive formed,” Mr Tonge said.
The two parties are divided over Irish language rights and same-sex marriage, which the DUP opposes. However, the DUP’s first openly gay councillor was elected on Friday. Alison Bennington’s election was criticised by one former DUP minister.
The talks next week follow a public outcry over the murder last month of Lyra McKee, a 29-year-old journalist in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
Despite revulsion at the killing by a New IRA faction that rejects the 1998 Good Friday peace pact, a prominent dissident republican topped the poll in one Derry ward. Gary Donnelly, who stood as an independent, was elected on the first count.
Although the Northern Irish poll was held on the same day as the English election, the counting process is slower due to its proportional representation voting system in local elections.
