Sinn Féin on track for best-ever Northern Ireland local election results

Nationalist party Sinn Féin was on course for its best-ever local election result in Northern Ireland on Saturday, in a contest widely regarded as a vote on the region’s post-Brexit political stalemate.

The party, which backs Irish unity, gained seats on councils where it had never won before and opened up a wide lead over the Democratic Unionist party, the region’s largest party in favour of keeping Northern Ireland in the UK.