Raymtond McCartney and Elisha McCallion comfortably home in Foyle .
Pix by Donal Dunn/NorthWest Newspix
SINN Fein was the biggest winner in the Assembly elections but it was the DUP who were narrowly returned as the biggest party after a tense, topsy turvy election.
In Foyle, the DUP’s Gary Middleton took the last seat from People Before Profit’s Eamonn McCann which helped Arlene Foster across the line as the largest party by a single seat.
The vote counting took place at the Foyle Arena.
Elisha McCallion comfortably topped the poll in her first run out at the Assembly. with running mate and ex-hunger striker Raymond McCartney also getting elected.
Their massive vote in Foyle meant for the first time Sinn Fein beat the SDLP to claim the mantle of the largest party in the city.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and Mark H Durkan both got re-elected but the party John Hume built in the city had lost out to Sinn Fein.
In East Derry, the story of the night was the return of SDLP stalwart John Dallat who hours earlier had conceded defeat.
But as the transfers were shared out, Dallat proved a popular candidate and managed to secure the fifth and final seat.
The other candidates elected in East Derry were Independent Claire Sugden, the DUP’s George Robinson, Maurice Bradley and Sinn Fein’s Caoimhe Archibald who topped the poll. Her running mate Cathal O’Hoisin lost out to Dallat in the final vote count.
And across the North, Sinn Fein mobilised its supporters to come out.
The party has come within a seat of drawing level with the DUP, which came into the election with 10 more seats.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and Mark H Durkan elected
Pix by Donal Dunn/NorthWest News Pix
Only 1,168 first preference votes separated the two parties and, for the first time, Unionists will not have an overall majority at Stormont.
Amid the fallout, Mike Nesbitt, who said he would vote SDLP second on his ballot paper, fell on his sword and quit as Ulster Unionist leader.
The election was called after the collapse of a coalition led by Arlene Foster’s DUP and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness.
Sinn Féin and the DUP now have three weeks to establish a government: Under Northern Ireland’s power-sharing agreement, the government must be run by Irish nationalists and unionists together.
If a government cannot be formed within that time then, under law, another election will be called.
Ultimately, if no power-sharing government is formed, devolved power could return to the UK parliament at Westminster for the first time in a decade.
However, Theresa Villiers, a former Northern Ireland secretary of state, said that the UK government could legislate to give the DUP and Sinn Féin more time to negotiate or to introduce of direct rule.
“It’s not an outcome that the UK government would want, I think that every effort will be made to try and support the parties in finding a way forward,” said the Conservative MP.
“But, ultimately, if at the end of three weeks they haven’t (agreed), then legislation is one option to give them more time or to return to direct rule.”
David Trimble, a former Ulster Unionist Party leader who also served as first minister of Northern Ireland, has suggested the parties would need more time to find agreement.
“If there isn’t an administration put in place then the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is on a legal obligation to dissolve the assembly and have another general election, which I doubt will get us anywhere.”
A total of 64.8% of the electorate voted in the second Assembly election in 10 months – the highest turnout since the vote which followed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and up 10 points on last May’s vote.
While Mr Nesbitt held his Assembly seat, other high-profile MLAs were not so lucky.
Former Justice Minister Claire Sugden safely returned in East Derry.
Pix by Donal Dunn/NorthWest News Pix
The SDLP’s Alex Attwood, the UUP’s Danny Kennedy, and the DUP’s Nelson McCausland and Lord Morrow were four former executive ministers who failed to secure a return to a Stormont legislature that is being cut from 108 to 90 members.
Mr McGuinness resigned over Mrs Foster’s refusal to step aside as first minister pending an inquiry into the ‘cash-for-ash’ scandal which could cost the North of Ireland tax payer £490m.
A total of 1,254,709 people were eligible to vote for 228 candidates competing for 90 seats across 18 constituencies.
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