Elections 2023: DUP repels Alliance bid and keeps top spot in Ards and North Down but party's first preference tally slips 4.4% on 2019

The Democratic Unionists walked out of the election with 14 seats, the same as their tally in 2019. That’s far from an outright majority on the 40-seat council, but enough to put them in the top spot for another four years.

Meanwhile Alliance were only able to score 12 of the 16 seats they’d aimed for – and a Sinn Fein attempt to get onto the council for the first time using a hurling star, Noel Sands, as candidate flopped.

The DUP scooped 29% of first preference votes, with Alliance on 26.6%, the UUP 16.5%, Greens 5.9%, TUV 4.8%, SDLP 3.7% and Sinn Fein dead last on 1.7%.

Technically the fourth largest bloc consisted of people without a party at all, with independents grabbing 11.8% of first preferences. That didn’t translate into wins, however; six incumbent councillors went into the election as independents, but half of them lost their seats. That includes two former DUP men who’d quit the party, and who effectively cancelled each other out on the ballot, allowing the Democratic Unionists to regain some ground they’d lost over the last few years.

Even though the DUP walked out with the largest number of seats and the highest vote, the election shouldn’t be all smiles for them in Ards and North Down. Their first preference tally was 4.4% down on 2019, the largest swing away from a party in the borough – though they were closely followed by a collapsing Green vote and a comparatively small dip in Ulster Unionist support.

Meanwhile Alliance’s first preferences were up by 4.4%, with a 3.4% swing in favour of the TUV plus small bumps for Sinn Fein and the SDLP.

Despite the boost in their popularity, the election was still a disappointment for Alliance. Last year’s Assembly elections saw the party gain two MLAs in the Ards and North Down area, and they also control North Down’s Westminster seat. They were hoping to ride that success to the council’s number one slot. Although they were the only party to make gains, squeezing out a Green councillor and nabbing what had been the borough’s only TUV seat, their extra two places fell far short of the victorious surge of Alliance’s dreams.

The party has had a high turnover of councillors since 2019, to the point that only three of their 16 candidates had fought an election before. The combination of a throng of unfamiliar faces and poor vote management in more than one district left Alliance unable to dethrone the DUP.

The TUV had the most dismaying time as, despite scoring hugely well in first preferences in the Ards area during last year’s Stormont poll, the party’s massive Assembly vote didn’t hold up and they were unable to make much headway.

Topping the poll across the entire borough was Ulster Unionist Mark Brooks, who carries an enormous personal vote in the Bangor East and Donaghadee district. Having suffered a stroke three months ago, he’d already announced that this would be his final time on the ballot, and huge numbers of people turned out to bid him farewell.

This year also sees the return of DUP veteran Alan Graham, who hit global headlines in 2011 when he threw pop star Rihanna off his farm on the outskirts of Bangor after finding her in a state of undress during a video shoot there. He lost his seat in 2019, but made a successful comeback and will now rejoin the council.

Final seat tally: 14 DUP, 12 Alliance, eight UUP, three independents, two Greens and one SDLP.

The parties in Ards and North Down got the following share of the first preference vote:

DUP 29.0% (-4.4% on 29)

Alliance 26.6% (+4.4%)

UUP 16.5% (-1.3%)

Green 5.9% (-4.3%)

TUV 4.8% (+3.4%)

SDLP 3.7% (+0.5%)

SF 1.7% (+1.2%)

Other 11.8%