Belfast …the big one.
Enlarged by the inclusion of some Catholic DEAs from Lisburn and some Protestant DEAs from Castlereagh, the consequence was (as it turned out) that nationalists would outvote unionists but that the Alliance Party would hold the balance of power in a “hung” council.

Results.
SF 19. SDLP 7 PBP 1.
DUP 13. UUP 7. TUV 2. PUP 2.
Alliance 8. Greens 1.

SDLP Perspective.
I will be looking at the four Belfast constituencies seperately.
The general observation is DUP lost ground to UUP and smaller parties such as TUV and PUP.
SDLP lost ground in vote share but will be happy to have come back with seven seats.
Alliance will be happy enough with eight seats.
High profile casualties all round.
Lee Reynolds of the DUP lost his seat thru poor vote management.
Maire Hendron of the Alliance Party lost her seat also.
Duncan Morrow (Alliance) will have regarded himself as a certainty to get a seat on the Council but lost put to a lesser known running mate.
Morrow has of course a family history with Alliance but interestingly Paula Bradshaw, whose history with Alliance goes all the way back to….er 2010….and her defection from UUP….she actually won a seat.

On a personal level I am saddened to see Colin Keenan (SDLP) fail to get elected. Boundary changes meant that Lower Falls DEA was abolished so he carried the SDLP banner in Court DEA. A loss to local politics, Colin is one of the good guys.