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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

NI council election results for Belfast City Council - your new councillors

Sinn Féin has strengthened its position as the largest party on Belfast City Council as smaller parties were squeezed.

Its seat tally increased by three to 22 after a seven-point swing since 2019 saw the party attract more than 35% of first-preference votes.

The DUP held onto second place, but the party's city hall group leader George Dorrian lost his seat in Titanic.

Read more: NI council election results 2023: Find out who is elected in your area

An unsuccessful bid to elect a third councillor in the area saw him miss out against his two running mates, Ruth Brooks and former DUP MLA Sammy Douglas.

The party secured 14 seats, down one after Alliance gained a second seat in Balmoral at the expense of Gareth Spratt.

It brings the number of Alliance councillors to 11, remaining the third-largest party.

The SDLP managed to pick up a seat in Black Mountain with Paul Doherty, but lost two elsewhere, leaving the party one seat down with five.

It lost a seat in Oldpark after former party councillor Paul McCusker was re-elected as an independent, and in Collin where Sinn Féin gained a fifth councillor.

Green Party leader Mal O'Hara lost his seat in Castle as Sinn Féin picked up a second in the area.

The Greens managed to hold onto their other three councillors, which prompted jubilant scenes after tightly run contests in Botanic and Ormiston.

People Before Profit dropped from three seats to one, with only Michael Collins holding on in Collin while Fiona Ferguson in Oldpark and Matt Collins in Black Mountain missed out.

PUP leader Billy Hutchinson lost his seat in the Court area, meaning the party no longer has any councillors at city hall.

His seat was instead picked up by Ron McDowell - giving TUV a spot on the council.

UUP retained its two seats as Jim Rodgers and Sonia Copeland were re-elected.

The DUP's vote share was 0.4% down on the last council election in 2019 with 21.1%, while Alliance was marginally up 0.1% to 15.8% and TUV rose 2.5 points to 2.8%.

The SDLP (7.8%), Greens (4.8%), UUP (4.1%) and People Before Profit (3.6%) all had declines in their vote share.

TUV's Anne Smyth, mother of BBC Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth, failed in her election bid in Titanic, receiving 564 votes and was excluded after the third count.

Voter turnout in Belfast was 52.98% - an increase of around two points on the last local government election in 2019.

Here is the full list of the councillors elected in each of Belfast City Council's district electoral areas:

Balmoral

Tara Brooks (Alliance)

Sarah Bunting (DUP)

Dónal Lyons (SDLP)

Geraldine McAteer (Sinn Féin)

Micky Murray (Alliance)

Black Mountain

Ciaran Beattie (Sinn Féin)

Arder Carson (Sinn Féin)

Paul Doherty (SDLP)

Michael Donnelly (Sinn Féin)

Róis-Máire Donnelly (Sinn Féin)

Áine McCabe (Sinn Féin)

Ronan McLaughlin (Sinn Féin)

Botanic

John Gormley (Sinn Féin)

Áine Groogan (Green Party)

Tracy Kelly (DUP)

Emmet McDonough-Brown (Alliance)

Gary McKeown (SDLP)

Castle

Brónach Anglin (Sinn Féin)

Fred Cobain (DUP)

Conor Maskey (Sinn Féin)

Dean McCullough (DUP)

Sam Nelson (Alliance)

Carl Whyte (SDLP)

Collin

Michael Collins (People Before Profit)

Joe Duffy (Sinn Féin)

Matt Garrett (Sinn Féin)

Caoimhín McCann (Sinn Féin)

Clíodhna Nic Bhranair (Sinn Féin)

Séanna Walsh (Sinn Féin)

Court

Tina Black (Sinn Féin)

Claire Canavan (Sinn Féin)

Frank McCoubrey (DUP)

Ron McDowell (TUV)

Ian McLaughlin (DUP)

Nicola Verner (DUP)

Lisnasharragh

Séamus de Faoite (SDLP)

Davy Douglas (DUP)

Bradley Ferguson (DUP)

Eric Hanvey (Alliance)

Michael Long (Alliance)

Brian Smyth (Green Party)

Oldpark

Nichola Bradley (Sinn Féin)

Jordan Doran (DUP)

JJ Magee (Sinn Féin)

Ryan Murphy (Sinn Féin)

Paul McCusker (Independent)

Tomás Ó Néill (Sinn Féin)

Ormiston

Christine Bower (Alliance)

Anthony Flynn (Green Party)

James Lawlor (DUP)

Jenna Maghie (Alliance)

Andrew McCormick (DUP)

Ross McMullan (Alliance)

Jim Rodgers (UUP)

Titanic

David Bell (Alliance)

Ruth Brooks (DUP)

Sonia Copeland (UUP)

Pádraig Donnelly (Sinn Féin)

Sammy Douglas (DUP)

Fiona McAteer (Alliance)

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