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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

NI election: Green Party Northern Ireland leader loses seat on Belfast City Council

Green Party Northern Ireland leader Mal O'Hara has lost his seat on Belfast City Council.

He remained in contention until the final stage of the count in the Castle area to the north of the city, but lost in the end to the SDLP's Carl Whyte.

Mr O'Hara is the second Green Party leader to lose their seat in a year, after Clare Bailey lost her South Belfast MLA seat in Stormont elections last May.

Read more: NI election analysis: Big wins for Sinn Fein while Alliance surge stalls

Sinn Féin gained a second seat in the Castle district electoral area, as sitting councillor Conor Maskey was elected alongside his running mate Brónach Anglin.

DUP councillors Fred Cobain and Dean McCullough and Alliance councillor Sam Nelson were also elected to the six-seat DEA.

Mr O'Hara was elected to Belfast City Council in 2019.

In August last year the LGBT activist was announced as the new leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland.

On Friday evening, Sinn Féin and the DUP appeared to be on course to hold their respective strengths on Belfast City Council.

Alliance leader Naomi Long said she believed her party had performed well in Belfast.

Mrs Long said she expected any gains for her party to come in the later stages of the count as the transfers in the single transferrable vote system are distributed.

In 2019, Sinn Féin was the largest party in Belfast with 18 councillors, however, this total was a drop from the 19 seats it won at the 2014 and 2011 local government elections.

Four years ago, the DUP had 15 councillors, a gain from the 13 seats it won in 2014, but still down on the 17 seats it won in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Alliance Party had 10 councillors in 2019, ahead of the SDLP who had six, the Green Party had four, People Before Profit had three, the UUP had two and the PUP had two.

Five DEAs were counted on Friday: Black Mountain, Castle, Court, Balmoral and Lisnasharragh.

Counting in the remaining DEAs of Botanic, Oldpark, Ormiston, Collin and Titanic, are due to start on Saturday.

If the counting has not completed on Saturday, it will resume on Monday.

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