Voters are sending a message to tell the DUP to get back to work, says SDLP leader Colum Eastwood

Speaking on UTV's Vote 23 programme, Eastwood believes fury surrounding the DUP's refusal to return to Stormont is leading the electorate to vote for Sinn Fein to 'send out a message' that they are ‘fed up’ by the current impasse.

Despite setbacks elsewhere, Eastwood was optimistic that the party will retain all 11 councillors in the Derry and Strabane District Council area.

"I think it's going to be a difficult day for us," he said.

"We can feel and could feel just a lot of people within nationalism who were very angry, very fed up, wanting to send a message to the DUP to get back to work.

"I think a lot of people felt the best way to do that was to vote for Sinn Fein.

"I think this was always going to happen and they will have a very big vote across the north.

"I'm optimistic we will hold our seats in Derry and Strabane.

"There's one we are concerned about but some of these boxes haven't even been opened.

"I think we are holding up well, particularly in the Foyle and in the Derry side of Derry and Strabane, there's a possibility we could get an extra seat there.

"The Sinn Fein vote is very big but I think the SDLP vote is holding up.

"The Alliance have collapsed here but you know the same story that is happening across the north is still happening in Derry but the SDLP has performed well in this city."

When asked if the SDLP were simply 'collateral damage' by the electorate voting for Sinn Fein, Eastwood agreed with that viewpoint but that the party 'won't be beaten'.

"It was going to happen and it happened last year and we are in the same place as we were a year ago,” he continued.

"People are coming out in strong numbers to send a message, they were asked to send that message and I think they've sent it.

"This election wasn't a local election in any traditional sense, it was a kind of referendum on the current political situation and I think there was only going to be one result.

"We're focused on the long-term, we're focused on the future, and I think some very good people might lose seats over the next couple of days and they don't deserve it.

"We're determined to build for the future, to build a new Ireland, to end division across our society and I think we are the most authentic party to do that heavy lifting and we will continue working on that.

"If we are bruised, we are bruised but we won't be beaten."

There was some good news for the SDLP as councillor Séamas de Faoite secured an impressive first preference vote in the Lisnaharragh DEA.

"It's a fantastic result for Séamas and he deserves an awful lot of praise.

"He has worked really hard as a councillor and a campaigner and an activist in that area.

"He was very close to the quota which people would have never thought could have happened in east Belfast and Séamas did that, which proves it can be done."