Derry & Strabane Council election count gets under way at Foyle Arena

A total of 40 seats will be filled across the seven electoral regions that make up Derry City & Strabane District Council and the full make up of the new local government elected body will not be known until at least Saturday evening.

The first ballot boxes were opened this morning and the Journal understands that in a departure from previous council elections, the Faughan, Derg, Sperrin and Waterside ballot boxes will be counted before the cityside wards of Ballyarnett, Foyleside and The Moor.

We will be there at the count centre throughout the weekend to bring you the latest results and developments.

The last Council election was in 2019 and saw a more pluralist Council make-up than was the case previously. The vote allocation share was Sinn Fein 17,062 votes (28.1%) 11 councillors; SDLP 15,458 votes (25.5%) 11 councillors; DUP 8,923 votes (14.7%) 7 councillors; UUP 4,126 votes (6.8%) 2 councillors; People Before Profit 3,590 votes (5.9%) 2 councillors; Alliance 2,852 votes (4.7%) 2 councillors; Aontú 1,032 votes (1.7%) 1 councillor; while there was 7,652 votes for Independent candidates (12.6%) with 4 independent councillors being returned.

There have been several co-options since that election across the chamber, and this time round there is also a high number of new candidates and others who have left or switched from previous parties standing.

A total of 70 candidates have put themselves forward across Derry & Strabane compared to 75 candidates four years ago.

Back in 2019, the Ballyarnett ward returned 3 SDLP, 2 Sinn Féin and one Aontú Councillors to represent the region.

The Moor returned 2 Sinn Féin, 1 Independent, 1 SDLP and 1 People Before Profit Councillors.

The third cityside watd, Foyelside returned 2 SDLP, 1 Sinn Féin, 1 People Before Profit, and 1 Indepedent Councillors.

The Waterside vote saw 2 DUP, 2 SDLP, 1 Sinn Féin, 1 UUP and 1 Alliance Councillors elected.

People voting in the Faughan area meanwhile elected 2 DUP, 1 SDLP, 1 SF, 1 Alliance Councillors.

In the Sperrin area, 2 Sinn Féin, 2 Independent, 2 DUP and 1 SDLP Councillors were returned by the electorate.

And finally in the Derg ward, 2 Sinn Féin, 1 DUP, 1 UUP and 1 SDLP Councillors were returned.

Overall in the north today, the big focus will be on whether Sinn Féin will emerge as the largest party ahead of the DUP in local government across for the first time. The performance of other parties and independent candidates will also be closely monitored.