Restore Stormont Executive now, Sinn Féin urges
The overall turnout for the election was 54.7%, up from just under 52.7% in 2019.
Having come third in last May's assembly election, the gains mean the party takes up the same position at council level.The Alliance Party increased its number of councillors to become the third largest party in local government In Belfast, the leaders of both the Progressive Unionist Party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland lost their council seats.Ms O'Neill hailed what she called a "momentous" result, after her party made breakthroughs across Northern Ireland, including having its first councillors elected in Ballymena and Coleraine.
"There should be an acceptance that the people have spoken now twice within the past 12 months, the voice is getting louder. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said there were lessons to learn from the results, which showed voters were fed up with unionist bickering and infighting. He added that a three-way split in the unionist vote - between the DUP, Ulster Unionists and Traditional Unionist Voice - was "dispiriting the unionist electorate".
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