inn Fein stays heading in the right direction to change into the biggest occasion in councils in Northern Ireland as counting continues within the native authorities elections.

As the depend stretched right into a second day, the republican occasion had 122 elected councillors at lunchtime, with beneficial properties achieved throughout the area.

The DUP has 104 council seats, the Alliance Party 46, the Ulster Unionists 44 and the SDLP 29, with 22 others.

Three of the 11 council areas have accomplished their depend, Lisburn and Castlereagh, Mid Ulster and Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon, the place Sinn Fein has emerged as the biggest occasion for the primary time.

The occasion has additionally elected its first ever councillor in Ballymena and is heading in the right direction to be the biggest occasion in Derry and Strabane.

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The DUP has retained its place as the biggest occasion in Lisburn and Castlereagh with occasion figures insisting that it had been a great end result for the biggest unionist occasion.

The cross-community Alliance Party has made beneficial properties and will change into the third largest occasion in native authorities.

Veteran PUP councillor Billy Hutchinson grew to become the second occasion chief to lose his seat in Belfast, following Green Party NI chief Mal O’Hara’s failure to get elected.

The votes are being counted by means of the only transferable vote system, with 462 seats to be stuffed throughout 11 council areas.

The common sample round voter turnout gave the impression to be up barely in areas which might be thought to be predominantly nationalist/republican and down barely in areas seen as unionist majority.

It is the primary electoral take a look at for the events since final 12 months’s Assembly elections and takes place in opposition to the backdrop of the Stormont stalemate, with the powersharing establishments not working as a part of a DUP protest in opposition to post-Brexit buying and selling preparations.

Sinn Fein’s Stormont chief Michelle O’Neill described the outcomes as “momentous”.

“It has been a very positive campaign, a very engaging campaign. People have very much engaged,” she informed the BBC.

Ms O’Neill added: “It was about positive leadership, it was about a restoration of the executive, it was about making politics work, that has resonated with the electorate and they have come out in such strong numbers that we are now on course to have a very momentous election result.

“It is now obviously about what we are going to do next. In my opinion we need to double down in terms of getting an executive restored and getting our councils up and running again.

“But those councils will always do better when they are working in tandem with the locally elected ministers who support councils.”

DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly stated it had not been a foul day for her occasion.

“Absolutely everybody threw everything at the DUP, it looks as if we will increase from the Assembly election in terms of our percentage share,” she informed the BBC.

She added: “Sinn Fein are clearly consolidating in terms of the nationalist community, they are eating into a lot of the smaller party votes.

“It was predicted that Sinn Fein would have a good election, but it is the DUP that has been in the eye of the storm.

“Despite that people came out, they voted for the DUP, it is a very solid performance and we have gained seats in a number of the constituencies.”

Ulster Unionist chief Doug Beattie stated he was disenchanted at his occasion’s outcomes.

“Of course I am disappointed. It has been a difficult election, at times it has been a brutal election,” he informed the BBC.

He stated: “We have lost some long-standing councillors, but we have also brought through some new fresh faces which is encouraging.”

He added: “It does take time, I said this when I took over as the party leader.

“I have been party leader for two years only, we have stuck with the same message for the last two elections and yes we haven’t had successes but we are in the first election cycle of my leadership, it is going to take more than one.

“We need to stick with it, we need to be inclusive, we need to be reaching out to as many people as we possibly can.”

SDLP chief Colum Eastwood stated Sinn Fein had “cannibalised” the nationalist vote.

“It has been very clear when we have been speaking to people that people are really annoyed at the DUP, that they want the executive back up and running and they wanted to send a message.

“Sinn Fein asked them to send that message, and they sent it.

“They (Sinn Fein) have totally cannibalised much of the nationalist electorate.

“They were given a good hand and, to be fair, they played it very well, they ran a very good campaign and they deserve the victory they have today.

“Of course the DUP had as their first priority in their election literature to get back to Stormont, let’s see them put their money where their mouth is.”

Northern Ireland’s councils are liable for setting charges, planning and waste assortment in addition to leisure companies and parks.