Northern Ireland election 2023: ABC Council's unionist majority may drop to one seat - and UUP 'in Trouble'

And by late yesterday afternoon both the DUP and UUP appeared to agree that this was all the more evident – with a real risk of unionists, who held 22 seats, having their majority of two seats whittled down to only one.

The last ABC council election in 2019 saw the DUP securing 11 seats, Sinn Fein ten, the UUP 10, and SDLP six with the Alliance more than doubling their vote to secure three.

Speaking late on Friday afternoon Mark Baxter, group DUP leader on the council, said it was looking like his party would maintain their 11 seats but also potentially pick up two to four others.

He was hopeful the party would collect three new seats in Lurgan, Armagh – which they secured – and Craigavon Central – which they didn’t - with an outside chance of a fourth in Cusher.

"It is quite clear across the tallies that the UUP vote is clearly down and that people in this borough have got in behind the DUP and our stance on the Windsor Framework," he said,

"We currently have 11 seats and it is looking like we are going to 14 and the UUP are going to lose two, possibly three seats across the borough."

He believed the TUV will take its first seat on the council with Keith Ratcliff in Cusher.

Unionism previously had a two seat majority on the council but he believes it is likely that will be reduced to a single seat.

UUP leader Doug Beattie, on his home patch in Upper Bann, admitted his party was under pressure.

“Without a shadow of a doubt we are in trouble in one or two seats, though we are still in the fight,” he said late on Friday afternoon.

“It is challenging, I absolutely get that, but you have to ask yourself whether those seats are going to unionists or to Alliance or Sinn Fein?”

He countered that if unionists were backing the DUP increasingly in the borough over the Windsor Framework, then that party would have to secure extra seats to prove this to be the case.

Otherwise, he said it will be hard to draw overall conclusions until all figures across NI can be reviewed.

TUV spokesman Sammy Morrison, who was standing in Lagan River, said it appeared that the party had made good progress in the borough.

“Our vote across the borough is definitely up and we are confident of taking our first seat on ABC council with Keith Ratcliffe,” he said. “Aside from that I don't think we are going to take any other seats."

The following councillors have been elected so far:

l Banbridge: Glenn Barr (DUP), Joy Ferguson (Alliance), Paul Greenfield (DUP), Chris McCartan (SF), Kevin Savage (SF), Ian Wilson (DUP) Ian Burns (UUP).

l Armagh: Scott Armstrong (DUP), Fergal Donnelly (SF), Sarah Duffy (SF), Ashley Mallon (SF), Thomas O’Hanlon and John Og O'Kane (SF).

l Lurgan: Peter Haire (DUP), Keith Haughian (SF), Peter Lavery (Alliance), Liam Mackle (Sinn Fein), Sorcha McGeown (SF), Mary O’Dowd (SF).

l Craigavon: Robbie Alexander (Alliance), Jude Mallon (SF), Catherine Nelson (SF), Margaret Tinsley (DUP) and Kate Evans (UUP).