Northern Ireland election results: Sinn Fein tops first preference votes

Northern Ireland will have to wait another day for the final results of the Assembly election after Sinn Fein topped the poll with a 29% first preference vote share and is on course to become the largest party at Stormont.

Constituency Links

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle O'Neill arrived amid a media scrum at the Belfast count centre earlier. Ms O'Neill topped the poll in Mid-Ulster.

The DUP received 21.3% share of the first preference vote - a drop of 7% since the last Assembly election in 2017.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was elected in Lagan Valley while Alliance leader Naomi Long topped the poll in East Belfast on what is a good day for her party, which increased its share of first preference votes by over 4% to 13.5%, to become the third largest party. The TUV sees the biggest swing since 2017, at +5%, after attracting 7.7% of first preference votes.

Some candidates face a long wait to discover whether or not they have been elected with counting set to go into a second day across all three centres as transfers are totalled.

Among those who may be left to sweat over the position are Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie and Green Party NI's Clare Bailey, who are under pressure to retain their seats.

Among the most high profile eliminations so far are the DUP's Peter Weir in Strangford, UUP stalwart Roy Beggs in East Antrim and the SDLP's Dolores Kelly in Upper Bann.

Follow our live coverage here: