'We’re getting a very good response ... council elections won’t be a bad day for the SDLP, insists Colum Eastwood

The council elections on Thursday May 18 will see 462 seats contested over 11 councils in Northern Ireland. The SDLP lost seven seats at the 2019 council elections, and its vote share has consistently decreased at local government since 2001.

Speaking at the party’s manifesto launch in Belfast on Friday, Mr Eastwood said the party faced a “difficult context”, as he referred to the potential for nationalist voters to rally behind Sinn Fein to make it the largest party at local government level and “punish” the DUP for its ongoing blockade of Stormont.

“I actually don’t think it’s going to be a bad day. I’ve been almost everywhere in the north, and we’re getting a very good response,” he said. “People are responding to the fact that we have fantastic candidates, a very diverse range of candidates, people who are embedded in their community and working hard for the community.

“Do we understand that there’s a difficult context, that the context that existed last year is still around? Yes, of course, we do, but I think people are clever enough to realise that pundits don’t get to choose the results of an election.”

At last year’s assembly election the SDLP lost four MLAs, but Mr Eastwood said that the party’s record in local government would pay off at this election.

“I know how important it is to have really good hard-working councillors who understand the issues on the ground. That’s what we have. And I think that will pay off actually, next Thursday,” he said.

After becoming the largest party in the assembly in the 2022 Stormont elections, Sinn Fein is projected to become the largest party in local government following Thursday’s vote.

The SDLP leader urged voters to “be smart” with how they vote in the upcoming local elections.

“I know, people are frustrated with the DUP, there’s nobody more frustrated with the DUP than I am, but I would ask people to think very carefully about how they use their vote,” he said. “Because there’s no point punishing parties like the SDLP, when the party you really want to hurt is the DUP, so people need to be smart and be clever with how they use their vote in this election.”

The Stormont government is currently not functioning due to the DUP’s blockade of the devolved institutions, which it is exercising in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

“We know that this is a difficult context for us, and it’s a difficult context for everybody. We had an election last year, when Michelle O’Neill was elected as First Minister and the DUP are starving her of that position, that’s absolutely wrong,” Mr Eastwood said. “But, we need to recognise this is a council election, and the candidates that we’re putting up are real local champions across every single community in Northern Ireland.”

The SDLP manifesto for local government includes additional cost-of-living payments for some groups, a review of mental health services in each council area and trialling ‘car-free Sunday’ initiatives in major towns.