Belfast City Council is the north's smallest local authority by area but serves the largest population – around 340,000.
Its 10 district electoral areas cover 60 wards that stretch from Upper Malone in the south to Castle in the north, and Colin Glen in the west across the city to Stormont.
The council today is in many ways a microcosm of Northern Ireland, with no group among its 60 elected representatives commanding a majority. Sinn Féin (18 seats) and the DUP (15 seats) are the largest of eight parties in all, with Alliance's nine councillors effectively holding the balance of power.
Historically, the Ulster Unionists were the dominant party, securing 25 of the 51 seats available in 1973, when the council replaced Belfast Corporation. The fortunes of the UUP provide a good illustration of how the council's composition has transformed over 50 years in response to political and demographic changes, coupled with the redrawing of boundaries in 2014, which saw an expansion that added 53,000 new residents into the catchment, plus an additional nine councillors.
Constituency Notebooks:
- Derry and Strabane to test Sinn Féin overhaul
- DUP face nervous wait in unionist dominated Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
- Unionists likely to remain majority in Antrim, Newtownabbey - but SF, Alliance eyeing more gains
In the 2019 election, the UUP secured just two seats. However, the defections of Carole Howard from Alliance and John Kyle from the PUP doubled its representation relatively early in the mandate. The veteran former PUP leader has quit politics, while Ms Howard is running in Ormiston DEA rather than Titanic, where she was previously elected. She will face an uphill battle to be returned on a UUP ticket alongside Jim Rodgers, so it may well be back to a mere brace of councillors for the party that was once all-conquering.
At the other end of the scale, Sinn Féin is buoyant and keen to put 2019's mediocre performance behind it. Returning a councillor in east Belfast is among its key targets, as is wrestling the seat it lost last time in Collin from People Before Profit.
For the DUP, the aim is likely to maintain its current tally and fend off threats from an emboldened TUV. However, the absence of a PUP candidate in Titanic due to the retirement of the aforementioned John Kyle means that in theory at least there's a unionist seat up for grabs. One or two gains would be a good result.
Alliance gained two seats last time around, as part of wider string of successes, and there's nothing to suggest it has yet peaked. There's potential for at least another two seats, though that may depend on how the Greens fare. The SDLP is already down one having lost Paul McCusker, who is standing as an independent in Oldpark. The party is generally under pressure, its profile strong in the south of the city but on the defensive elsewhere.
The Greens and People Before Profit both performed well in 2019, taking three and two extra seats, respectively. Will the new paradigm hinted at four years ago prosper or will the establishment parties prevail?
Other notables to watch are PUP leader Billy Hutchinson, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement representing the rump of what was then called 'fringe loyalists', the TUV's Anne Smyth, mother of BBCNI director Adam Smyth, and Irish-speaking DUP candidate Ruth Brooks, wife of MLA David Brooks.
BELFAST CITY COUNCIL
ELECTION RESULT 2019
SEATS (change since 2014):
Sinn Féin 18 (-1)
DUP 15 (+2)
Alliance 10 (+2)
SDLP 6 (-1)
Green 4 (+3)
PBP 3 (+2)
UUP 2 (-5)
PUP 2 (-1)
Belfast City Council candidates
:: Balmoral
Tara Brooks (Alliance)
Sarah Bunting (DUP)
Lauren Kendall (Green Party)
Joshua Lowry (UUP)
Dónal Lyons (SDLP)
Geraldine McAteer (Sinn Féin)
Sarah Mulgrew (SDLP)
Micky Murray (Alliance)
Sean Napier (Sinn Féin)
Gareth Spratt (DUP)
:: Black Mountain
Ciaran Beattie (Sinn Féin)
Ryan Brown (Alliance)
Arder Carson (Sinn Féin)
Matt Collins (People Before Profit)
Paul Doherty (SDLP)
Michael Donnelly (Sinn Féin)
Róis-Máire Donnelly (Sinn Féin)
Gerard Herdman (Aontú)
Stevie Maginn (Green Party)
Ursula Meighan (Workers Party)
Dan Murphy (IRSP)
Áine McCabe (Sinn Féin)
Ronan McLaughlin (Sinn Féin)
:: Botanic
Billy Dickson (TUV)
Jeffrey Dudgeon (UUP)
Emma-Jane Faulkner (Sinn Féin)
John Gormley (Sinn Féin)
Áine Groogan (Green Party)
Tracy Kelly (DUP)
Darren Leighton (DUP)
Paddy Lynn (Workers Party)
Idris Maiga (Conservatives)
Emmet McDonough-Brown (Alliance)
Gary McKeown (SDLP)
Neil Moore (Socialist Party)
Chris Ogle (Alliance)
Sipho Sibanda (People Before Profit)
:: Castle
Brónach Anglin (Sinn Féin)
Fred Cobain (DUP)
Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston (UUP)
Barney Doherty (People Before Profit)
Lily Kerr (Workers Party)
Conor Maskey (Sinn Féin)
Dean McCullough (DUP)
Sam Nelson (Alliance)
Mal O'Hara (Green Party)
Carl Whyte (SDLP)
:: Collin
Michael Collins (People Before Profit)
Patrick Crossan (Workers Party)
Joe Duffy (Sinn Féin)
Matt Garrett (Sinn Féin)
Ash Jones (Green Party)
Tony Mallon (Independent)
Caoimhín McCann (Sinn Féin)
Luke McCann (Aontú)
Gerard McDonald (SDLP)
Julieann McNally (Independent)
Eoin Millar (Alliance)
Clíodhna Nic Bhranair (Sinn Féin)
Séanna Walsh (Sinn Féin)
:: Court
Tina Black (Sinn Féin)
Claire Canavan (Sinn Féin)
Sara Haller (Green Party)
Ally Haydock (Alliance)
Billy Hutchinson (PUP)
Michael Kelly (IRSP)
Cailín McCaffery (People Before Profit)
Frank McCoubrey (DUP)
Ron McDowell (TUV)
Ian McLaughlin (DUP)
Olcan McSparron (SDLP)
Nicola Verner (DUP)
Tony Walls (Workers Party)
Geoffrey Wilson (Independent)
:: Lisnasharragh
Nick Cropper (People Before Profit)
Séamus de Faoite (SDLP)
Davy Douglas (DUP)
Bradley Ferguson (DUP)
Stephen Ferguson (TUV)
Eric Hanvey (Alliance)
Stevie Jenkins (Sinn Féin)
Michael Long (Alliance)
Bill Manwaring (UUP)
Anna McErlean (Alliance)
Brian Smith (Green Party)
:: Oldpark
Nichola Bradley (Sinn Féin)
Charlotte Carson (SDLP)
Ange Cruz (Green Party)
Jordan Doran (DUP)
Fiona Ferguson (People Before Profit)
JJ Magee (Sinn Féin)
Ryan Murphy (Sinn Féin)
Fiona McCarthy (Workers Party)
Ann McClure (TUV)
Paul McCusker (Independent)
Tomás Ó Néill (Sinn Féin)
Chris Shannon (Alliance)
Gillian Simpson (DUP)
:: Ormiston
Christine Bower (Alliance)
Fiona Doran (People Before Profit)
Anthony Flynn (Green Party)
John Hiddleston (TUV)
Carole Howard (UUP)
James Lawlor (DUP)
Jenna Maghie (Alliance)
Caitríona Mallaghan (Sinn Féin)
Andrew McCormick (DUP)
Loran McGuirk (SDLP)
Ross McMullan (Alliance)
Jim Rodgers (UUP)
Caitlin Sullivan (Alliance)
:: Titanic
David Bell (Alliance)
Ruth Brooks (DUP)
Sonia Copeland (UUP)
Pádraig Donnelly (Sinn Féin)
George Dorrian (DUP)
Sammy Douglas (DUP)
Gillian Hamilton (Green Party)
Fiona McAteer (Alliance)
Elly Odhiambo (SDLP)
Anne Smyth (TUV)
