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Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has said her party’s success in Northern Ireland’s local government elections is a message from the people that Stormont must return. However, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted his party’s vote is holding up as counting continues to fill 462 seats across 11 council areas. At 8.30pm, Sinn Fein led the way with 62 councillors elected. The DUP was next on 52, the cross-community Alliance Party had 26, the Ulster Unionists 21, the SDLP 10, with eight others. In terms of the share of the first preference votes, Sinn Fein had 30.6%, more than 7% higher than the first preference share it enjoyed in the last council elections in 2019.