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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Niall Deeney

Derry and Strabane to have no unionist Mayor for first time in decades

Derry is to be without a unionist Mayor throughout the current council term for the first time in decades, it has been confirmed.

The D'Hondt system used at both Stormont and council level for allocating places means all four Mayors will be from a natonalist party between now and the next election.

Sinn Fein were the big winners in the recent elections with 18 seats and have opted to nominate a Mayor in three of the four rotating year-long Mayoral terms, with the SDLP as the next-largest party set to take the remaining position.

Read more: New Mayor of Derry says council must 'support workers and families'

The first year in the new council term sees Sinn Fein's Patricia Logue take on the Mayoral chain, while the SDLP's Jason Barr has been named the new Deputy Mayor.

UUP councillor Ryan McCready, whose party increased both its vote share and its number of seats, is sanguine - if disappointed - about the outcome.

"It's what I expected," he told Belfast Live. "The system we used is proportional representation and the D'Hondt system.

"Sinn Fein had a fantastic election and they are entitled to three Mayoral terms - I don't have a problem with that because I respect democracy.

"That being said, it's disappointing that we don't have enough unionist seats and that's down to a pro-union electorate not turning out to vote."

The new Mayor, Patricia Logue, has pledged to be a "Mayor for all" in an echo of her party's election slogan of 'working for all'.

Mr McCready said: "Here's the thing. I congratulate Patricia and I give everyone a fair shot, but it's what they do not what they say.

"If she wants to be the Mayor for all then the way to do that is to turn up to events, to engage directly with the pro-union electorate. That doesn't ean she has to agree with it or like it, but that is what she has to do to catch up with her narrative of being a Mayor for all."

Mr McCready said the previous two Mayors - Sinn Fein's Sandra Duffy and former DUP councillor Graham Warke - had each "in their own right, made huge strides to being a Mayor for all".

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