2023 Belfast City Council election

2023 Belfast City Council election

← 2019 18 May 2023 2027 →
All 60 council seats 31 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ciaran Beattie Sarah Bunting Michael Long Party Sinn Féin DUP Alliance Leader's seat Black Mountain Balmoral Lisnasharragh Last election 18 seats, 28.2% 15 seats, 21.6% 10 seats, 15.7% Seats won 22 14 11 Seat change 4 1 1 Popular vote 44,202 26,621 19,841 Percentage 35.2% 21.2% 15.9% Swing 7.0% 0.4% 0.2%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Carl Whyte Mal O'Hara Sonia Copeland Party SDLP Green (NI) UUP Leader's seat Castle Castle (defeated ) Titanic Last election 6 seats, 9.1% 4 seats, 6.0% 2 seats, 6.2% Seats won 5 3 2 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 9,690 5,965 5,123 Percentage 7.8% 4.8% 4.1% Swing 1.3% 1.2% 2.1%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   PUP Leader Matt Collins Ron McDowell Billy Hutchinson Party People Before Profit TUV PUP Leader's seat Black Mountain (defeated) Court Court (defeated) Last election 3 seats, 5.2% 0 seats, 0.3% 2 seats, 3.1% Seats won 1 1 0 Seat change 2 1 2 Popular vote 4,492 3,482 679 Percentage 3.6% 2.8% 0.5% Swing 1.6% 2.5% 2.6%
First preference vote and seat totals by local electoral area. As this is a STV election, seat totals are determined by popular vote and preferences in each district electoral area.
Council control before election No overall control Council control after election No overall control

The 2023 election to Belfast City Council was held on 18 May 2023, alongside other local elections in Northern Ireland, two weeks after local elections in England.^[1] The Northern Ireland elections were delayed by 2 weeks to avoid overlapping with the coronation of King Charles III.^[2]

Voters returned 60 members to the council via single transferable vote. Typical for Northern Ireland, the council remained with no overall control but Sinn Féin remained the single largest party, but fell short of a majority despite a net gain of 4 seats. ^[3]