Counting of votes in North’s Local elections to begin this afternoon

Counting of votes cast in Northern Ireland’s European and local government elections is to begin later.
The verification of election ballots is expected to be completed by mid-afternoon, and the first council seats should be declared by about 6pm.
All results from the 11 new councils should be known by Saturday evening.
In the Derry/Strabane Supercouncil, a total of 71 candidates contested the 40 seats up that are for grabs in the newly drawn up seven district electoral wards.
It’s understood that the turnout in Strabane was just over 53%, while it was just over 50% in Derry.