Antrim & Newtownabbey: 'DUP warned vote-splitting would put unionism under pressure - and we could now see it coming true'

Mr Brett, representing North Belfast, was the designated media spokesman at the Antrim and Newtownabbey count.

He said any requests to speak to other party figures besides him would be turned down.

But while he is pleased with the early results so far, he also said Sinn Fein have polled “very well”, though the picture is still an emerging one.

The DUP expects to come back with at least 14 seats again this time in Antrim and Newtownabbey, which would equal its result in 2019.

"Across the Province, it’s still early, but it looks very, very good,” he said.

"Reports I’m receiving is the DUP vote is up, our share of the unionist vote is up, and that people have come out and united around our message.”

If the DUP ends up having fewer councillors than in 2019, what then? Will the party leadership be in question?

"I’m taking the positives from this,” he said.

“And it’s been a very, very good election.”

He added: "Sinn Fein have polled very well across the Province.

"What we’ve seen in the Assembly election is when unionists come out to vote, if they vote for other candidates other than the DUP, the unionist vote is split and that hands seats to other parties.

"We warned about this before the election. The TUV and others said that was a myth, it wasn’t true.

"But as today plays out I think we’ll see examples of where unionism could come under pressure because too many candidates have been fielded.”

The whole borough results back in 2019 were as follows:

DUP: 15,100 first preferences (31.5%) 14 councillors

UUP: 9,726 (20.3%) 9 councillors

Alliance: 8,970 (18.7%) 7 councillors

Sinn Fein: 6,269 (13.1%) 5 councillors

SDLP: 3,742 (7.8%) 4 councillors

Ind: 2,564 (5.3%) 1 councillor

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