A TUV spokesperson said:
“While we would like to have seen further progress this has been a good election for TUV. We have increased our number of seats in local government by 50% and our first preference vote across the Province has doubled.
“We are back in Causeway Coast and Glens council having won two seats and in Mid and East Antrim we missed out on winning a third seat in Bannside by a handful of votes.
“We have also broken out of North Antrim with a massive increase in the TUV vote in Belfast. While we are of course particularly delighted that party secretary Ron McDowell secured a seat in Court, across the city our candidates polled well.
“In ABC council, Keith Ratcliffe polled an incredible 2,037 votes to secure our first ever seat on the council while Sammy Morrison finished runner up in Lagan River and Robert Oliver in Portadown secured almost 800 first preferences.
“Across the country we saw other candidates miss out by very fine margins with Comber, Newtownards, Bangor Central and Enniskillen particularly close run races.
“All that said, we are of course disappointed to lose Harold McKee’s seat in Mourne where he had represented his constituents diligently. We wish him well for the future as he will be outside of elected politics.
“But for the fact that the DUP came out in the last few days of the election and rejected the Windsor Framework after being evasive on the issue for months, more seats would have been won by TUV across Northern Ireland. There is an onus on those who made that promise to the electorate to keep it. The worst thing Unionism could do when faced with the growth of Sinn Fein would be to roll over and accept their demands on holding the First Minister post and imposing an Irish Sea Border.
“As the only Unionist party to grow both in terms of votes and seats, TUV will continue to act as the voice of challenge.”