[5] The Northern Ireland Assembly had been suspended since 2017 with the failure of powersharing between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

[6] At the 2017 United Kingdom general election, no party won an overall majority in the UK Parliament, so the DUP agreed a deal to support a minority Conservative government.

UK politics was dominated by Brexit, which was due to take place before the local elections, however it was delayed until 31 January 2020.

[10] In February 2019, both party leaders criticised the DUP and Sinn Féin over the continuing deadlock over power sharing in the Assembly.

Paralleling results in England, Alliance, some smaller parties and independents made significant gains.