2023 Newry, Mourne and Down District Council election explained

See main article: 2023 Northern Ireland local elections.

Election Name:	2023 Newry, Mourne and Down District Council election
Flag Image:	Flag placeholder.svg
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	2019 Newry, Mourne and Down District Council election
Previous Year:	2019
Next Year:	2027
Seats For Election:	All 41 council seats
Majority Seats:	21
Election Date:	18 May 2023
Leader1:	Michelle O'Neill
Party1:	Sinn Féin
Seats1:	20
Seat Change1:	4
Popular Vote1:	37,032
Percentage1:	48.3%
Swing1:	11.8%
Leader2:	Colum Eastwood
Party2:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats2:	8
Seat Change2:	3
Popular Vote2:	13,170
Percentage2:	17.2%
Swing2:	5.8%
Leader3:	Jeffrey Donaldson
Party3:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats3:	5
Seat Change3:	2
Popular Vote3:	9,124
Percentage3:	11.9%
Swing3:	3.4%
Leader4:	Naomi Long
Party4:	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Seats4:	5
Seat Change4:	3
Popular Vote4:	7,176
Percentage4:	9.4%
Swing4:	2.0%
Leader5:	No leader
Party5:	Independent (politician)
Seats5:	2
Seat Change5:	3
Popular Vote5:	3,608
Percentage5:	4.7%
Swing5:	7.8%
Leader6:	Doug Beattie
Party6:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats6:	1
Seat Change6:	3
Popular Vote6:	4,062
Percentage6:	5.3%
Swing6:	4.7%
Council control
Posttitle:	Council control after election
Before Election:	No overall control
After Election:	TBC
Last Election1:	16
Last Election2:	11
Last Election3:	3
Last Election4:	2
Last Election5:	5
Last Election6:	4

The 2023 election to Newry, Mourne and Down District 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]

41 members were returned to the council via Single Transferable Vote.

Election results

|-| colspan="2" style="background-color:#f2f2f2;text-align:center;margin-bottom:-1px;border:1px solid #aaa;padding:.2em .4em" | | style="text-align:right;" | 41|| |||| style="text-align:right;" | 76,643|

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

The 2023 LG election in NMD saw the further decline of the SDLP and UUP, whereas Sinn Fein and Alliance made gains, with the DUP also gaining two councillors.

Districts summary

|- class="unsortable" align="centre"!rowspan=2 align="left"|District Electoral Area (DEA)! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Sinn Féin!colspan=2 bgcolor=""| SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Independents and others|-|align="left"|Crotlieve|bgcolor="#008800"|45.67|bgcolor="#008800"|3 1|17.74|1 1|4.57|0 |5.03|0 |3.42|0 |23.57|2 |6|-|align="left"|Downpatrick|bgcolor="#008800"|43.45|bgcolor="#008800"|2 1|30.71|2 1|3.27|0 |13.75|1 1|2.45|0 |6.37|0 1|5|-|align="left"|Newry|bgcolor="#008800"|65.15|bgcolor="#008800"|4 1|18.15|2 |0.00|0 |7.94|0 |2.72|0 |6.04|0 1|6|-|align="left"|Rowallane|10.78|0 |16.42|1 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|34.17|bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |24.59|2 1|12.91|0 1|1.12|0 |5|-|align="left"|Slieve Croob|bgcolor="#008800"|47.56|bgcolor="#008800"|3 1|11.68|0 1|19.34|1 1|13.28|1 |4.30|0 1|3.85|0 |5|-|align="left"|Slieve Gullion|bgcolor="#008800"|67.92|bgcolor="#008800"|5 |16.00|1 |2.45|0 |2.03|0 |8.15|1 |3.46|0 |7|-|align="left"|The Mournes|bgcolor="#008800"|41.87|bgcolor="#008800"|3 |12.91|1 |25.65|2 1|8.27|1 1|3.82|0 1|7.47|0 1|7|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|48.32|20 4|17.18|8 3|11.90|5 2|9.36|5 3|5.30|1 3|7.93|2 3|41|-|}

District results

Crotlieve

2019: 2 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP, 2 x Independent

2023: 3 x Sinn Féin, 2 x Independent, 1 x SDLP

2019–2023 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP

Downpatrick

2019: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Independent

2023: 2 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance

2019–2023 Change: Sinn Féin and Alliance gain from SDLP and Independent

Newry

2019: 3 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Independent

2023: 4 x Sinn Féin, 2 x SDLP

2019–2023 Change: Sinn Féin gain from Independent

Rowallane

2019: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP

2023: 2 x DUP, 2 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP

2019–2023 Change: Alliance gain from UUP

Slieve Croob

2019: 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance

2023: 3 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance

2019–2023 Change: Sinn Féin and DUP gain from SDLP and UUP

Slieve Gullion

2019: 5 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP

2023: 5 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x UUP

2019–2023 Change: No change

The Mournes

2019: 3 x Sinn Féin, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent

2023: 3 x Sinn Féin, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance

2019–2023 Change: DUP and Alliance gain from UUP and Independent

Changes during the term

† Co-options

Date co-opted	Electoral Area	Party		Outgoing	Co-optee	Reason
13 November 2023	Newry		Michael Savage	Killian Feehan	Savage resigned.^[3]
24 May 2024	Slieve Croob		Andrew McMurray	Helena Young	McMurray was co-opted to the Northern Ireland Assembly.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Local government elections in Northern Ireland . 2022-05-19 . www.electoralcommission.org.uk . en.
2. News: 21 December 2022 . NI council election moved to avoid coronation clash . BBC News . 21 December 2022.
3. Web site: New Councillor - Newry District Electoral Area.
4. Web site: New Councillor - Slieve Croob District Electoral Area.