NI council elections: Sinn Féin hails historic gains

Summary

Two days of vote counting finishes after Northern Ireland’s council elections
Sinn Féin becomes the largest party in local government in Northern Ireland for the first time
DUP retains same number of seats, Alliance makes gains while UUP and SDLP suffer losses
Councils are responsible for services such as waste collection, street cleaning, planning, parks and leisure services
The elections use the single transferable vote system - a form of proportional representation

Live Reporting

Rebekah Wilson, James Kelly, Luke Sproule and Claire Brennan

Former soldier electedpublished at 14:39 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
Former soldier Ryan McCready has been re-elected to Derry City and Strabane District Council for the UUP.
Councillor McCready became well known for his TikTok videos during the campaign.
In the last assembly election, he narrowly missed out on a seat to the DUP's Gary Middleton.
He shared this picture on his Twitter account, external and thanked those who voted for him.
Image source, Ryan McCready from Twitter
Derry City and Strabane District Council latestpublished at 14:32 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
The latest from Derry City and Strabane - 2 Sinn Féin seats, 2 Ulster Unionist and 1 DUP.
Lisburn & Castlereagh latestpublished at 14:25 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
Early results in Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council; Alliance 4 seats, DUP 3 and Sinn Féin 2.
Long day for somepublished at 14:19 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
It's going to be a long day for some of the party candidates waiting to hear their future.
Among them the Alliance Party's Michael Long, who's the husband of party leader Naomi Long, both spotted at the Belfast City Hall count.
Image source, Pacemaker
Image caption,
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long and her husband Michael Long who is an Alliance Party candidate.
What's the score?published at 14:01 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
The Lord Mayor of Belfast Tina Black is wondering what the results are for her party, Sinn Féin, at the count in Belfast city Hall.
Image source, Pacemaker
Image caption,
Belfast Lord Mayor Tina Black at Belfast City Hall.
How your ballot workspublished at 13:53 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
In council elections in Northern Ireland, the voting system used is called the single transferable vote (STV) .
if you're not sure exactly what STV is, here's a good explanation.
Image source, PA
Count staff hard at workpublished at 13:36 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
Hundreds of staff are working on sorting ballots at count centres across Northern Ireland.
Image source, Pacemaker
Image caption,
Hard at work the count centre
First candidates deemed electedpublished at 13:22 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
The first results are coming in but counting of the votes has a long way to go at this stage, with the full picture more likely tomorrow.
So far Sinn Féin already has 12 councillors elected, with the DUP on 6 and the Alliance Party with 2. The Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP have no candidates elected at the minute.
Election numbers explainedpublished at 13:06 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
The 11 council areas are broken down into DEAs - or District Election Areas - with each one releasing the number of people who voted and the overall turnout.
We'll bring you some of those numbers as they come in.
Hello and welcomepublished at 12:58 British Summer Time 19 May 2023
Counting of votes is under way in Northern Ireland's council elections.
A total of 819 people are competing for 462 seats in 11 councils across Northern Ireland.
The final results are not expected to be confirmed until Saturday night.
Please stay with us as we bring you all the news and results over the next two days, however, BBC News NI's election coverage will be limited on Friday because of industrial action by the NUJ
Image source, PA