Antrim & Newtownabbey: First seat to be announced in borough goes easily to Sinn Fein

Henry Cushinan sailed over the quota line with 1,390 first preference votes in the Dunsilly ward, covering the northernmost part of the council area, from Toome to roughly Doagh.

Trailing him marginally was his colleague Annie O’Lone, with 1,214 (though she will have to wait for subsequent rounds before she is elected).

No-one else in the ward broke the 1,000-vote barrier in the first round of counting.

It looks like something of a breakthrough for Sinn Fein, which only managed one seat in the ward in 2019.

Back then, the results for Dunsilly were: 1 DUP / 1 UUP / 1 Alliance / 1 SDLP / 1 SF.

Mr Cushinan had been a councillor for the area ever since the council was created in 2014.

Annie O’Lone is standing for the first time.

Back in 2014 there were only three Sinn Fein candidates elected in the whole borough.

In 2019, it rose to five.

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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