Polls close for local council elections

There are 1,463 polling stations across Northern Ireland which will close at 10pm on Thursday. Credit: PA

Polling stations have closed across Northern Ireland for the local council elections.

The 1,463 stations here shut their doors at 10pm - however, if you were still in the polling station or queued outside it, you were still allowed to vote.

A total of 819 local government election candidates are fighting it out for 462 seats in 11 council areas here.

There will be overnight verification of unused ballot papers returned from the polling stations, with councils ready to begin counting on Friday morning at 8am.

Voting system

The election is being conducted by Single Transferable Vote, a proportional representation system.

Every voter has only one vote, but they can ask for it to be transferred from one candidate to another to make sure it is not wasted.

This is done by numbering the candidates in order of preference 1,2,3,4,5 and so on instead of just putting an "X" against one of them.

Results

Counting will get underway on Friday morning, with results expected in the afternoon and Saturday.

  • WATCH: Our special Local Council Election programme, Vote 19, on UTV, Friday at 4pm