Northern Ireland council elections 2023: How voting systems works

Votes are being counted for the Northern Ireland local government elections.

Polling took place on Thursday across Northern Ireland with 1,305,553 people eligible to vote.

There are 807 people competing for 462 seats and they will be elected by a system of single transferable vote.

Counting is expected to continue into Saturday.

But how does voting work?

Council members are elected by the single transferable vote (STV) system.

It is different to Westminster's 'first-past-the-post' system which sees those with the biggest number of votes elected.

STV can be a complicated system which sees people vote, not by a 'x' but by numbering their preferences. That can mean that those with the most amount of votes may have to rely on transfers to get elected.

It is argued that the system produces a more representative system.

How does STV work?

1. People in each District Electoral Area (DEA) vote for as many candidates as they wish in order of preference.

2. Each voting paper is checked to see if it has been correctly filled in and any spoiltpapers are removed from the count to give a total valid count.

3. A quota is calculated for each constituency using a formula. That is calculated by taking the total number of valid votes and dividing it by the number of seats available, plus one. And then adding another one.

4. Voting papers are sorted according to first preferences. Any candidate attaining or exceeding the quota is deemed to be elected.

5. Surplus votes from candidates who exceed the quota are then transferred at a fractional value to the remaining candidates according to next available preference.

- that fractional value is calculated by taking the surplus and dividing it by the total number of papers that were transferable - the result is calculated to two decimal places and the remainder ignored

6. Candidates with the least number of votes are excluded and their votes are also transferred according to next available preference.

7. This process continues until all available seats have been filled.

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