THE DEMOCRATIC Unionist Party and Sinn Féin appeared firmly on course last night to maintain their dominant positions in Northern Ireland politics, with Peter Robinson likely to be returned as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister.
As counting resumed today it seemed unlikely Sinn Féin would win more seats than the DUP and therefore be entitled to the post of First Minister. Four years ago the DUP won 36 seats against 28 for Sinn Féin, with the Ulster Unionist Party taking 18 seats, the SDLP 16 and Alliance seven.
All party leaders were last night conscious it would be difficult to provide a confident prediction about the likely overall outcome of the Assembly election, and that the counts for the unpredictable fifth and sixth seats in the 18 six-seater constituencies would determine the final result.
There was concern in the UUP camp, with the party under pressure in constituencies such as North Down and East Derry.
The first of the party leaders elected last night was Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP, topping the poll in South Down shortly after 8pm. She was cautious about predicting how many seats the party would win but appeared confident it would hold its 16 seats, and might possibly make a gain.
Alliance leader David Ford also expressed satisfaction with his party’s performance. Senior Alliance figures predicted the party would increase its representation from its current seven seats.
The first results did not come in until 7pm last night because of the slow pace of counting, exacerbated by the requirement to first verify not only the Assembly votes but the votes cast in the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum and the local elections.
There were a number of problems yesterday with some counters not turning up for work, some ballot papers needing to be dried and, most unnervingly for the candidates, a full recount required in Foyle. The recount was called just before the first count was due about 8.30pm. It was called because “197 votes went missing”. The votes were finally “discovered” and the recount was abandoned.
There were calls last night for an inquiry into why the counts were so slow. DUP MP for North Belfast Nigel Dodds said the pace of the counts was getting to be “ridiculous”, while Mr McGuinness around teatime said there was “concern and dismay . . . that we have not one seat allocated”.
Former DUP enterprise minister Arlene Foster said the situation was approaching “farce”.
By 8.45pm last night just eight seats were filled, with the DUP, Sinn Féin, UUP and SDLP each taking two seats.
Newry and Armagh was the first constituency to declare results at 7pm. Three candidates exceeded the quota on the first count – Conor Murphy topping the poll for Sinn Féin, with Dominic Bradley of the SDLP and Danny Kennedy of the UUP also elected.
Gregory Campbell of the DUP, who was elected for East Derry on the first count, expressed confidence the party would hold its three seats in the constituency.
In Lagan Valley, Edwin Poots was returned for the DUP, with the UUP’s Basil McCrea also elected.
There was disappointment at the turnout, expected in percentage terms to be in the low to mid-50s – down significantly from the 62 per cent turnout in 2007.
In North Antrim the Traditional Unionist Voice party leader Jim Allister was polling reasonably well and seemed likely to win a seat, although the TUV had concerns about whether he would get sufficient tranfers.
