Northern Ireland election 2023: Voters set to decide on councils

Voters are going to the polls on Thursday to decide who should represent them on Northern Ireland's 11 councils.

A total of 807 candidates are competing for 462 seats in council chambers across the region.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 BST and will close at 22:00, with about 1.4m people eligible to vote.

The election was originally due to take place on 4 May, but was delayed due to the King's Coronation.

It is only the third election to 11 so-called super councils in Northern Ireland.

It is also only the second time in 26 years that Northern Ireland is holding a stand-alone council election - normally they are run alongside polls for Stormont, Westminster or Europe.

Voters will use the single transferable vote (STV) system, the same as that used in Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

People will rank candidates in numerical preference, marking their ballot 1,2,3 and so on for as many or as few preferences as they want.

Candidates are then elected according to the share of the vote they receive.

To find out who is standing in your area, type your postcode into the bar below.

Voters have to be aged at least 18 and on the electoral register to vote in Northern Ireland.

Polling cards are not required to vote but voters will be asked for some proof of identity.

The document does not need to be current but the photograph does need to be a good enough likeness to allow staff to confirm your identity.

The number of candidates is slightly down from the 819 people who put their names forward for the previous council elections four years ago.

Counting in the elections will begin on Friday morning. In 2019, counting continued past midnight and into the next day.

BBC News NI will cover the latest election results and analysis online, with live coverage from the moment counting begins to when the last result is announced.

There will also be special election programmes on BBC Radio Ulster from 16:00 to 22:00 on Friday and 10:00 to 13:00 on Saturday.

On BBC One Northern Ireland, there will be special election programmes between 15:30 to 16:30 and 19:30 to 22:00 on Friday and then 10:00 to 13:00 on Saturday.