LAST UPDATE | 7 May 2022
SDLP DEPUTY LEADER Nichola Mallon is the latest casualty of the Stormont election, having lost her seat in North Belfast, while Sinn Fein has won a historic victory after it became the largest party at Stormont for the first time.
The election result “ushers in a new era”, the party’s vice president Michelle O’Neill has said.
As counting continued into Saturday evening, the latest results confirmed what had long been likely, that the Republican party would force the DUP into second place.
Shortly after 7pm on Saturday, 88 of 90 Assembly seats had been filled.
Only the Foyle constituency remains, where the last two seats are yet to be declared.
Sinn Féin currently has 27 seats while the DUP have 23, the Alliance Party 17, the Ulster Unionists (UUP) nine and the SDLP on seven, with one seat going to TUV leader Jim Allister.
Independent unionists Alex Easton and Claire Sugden have taken a seat each while People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll has taken the final seat in West Belfast.
Sinn Féin also won the battle for largest vote share with 250,388 first preferences, compared with 184,002 for the DUP and 116,681 for the Alliance Party.
This means it received 29% of first-preference votes, compared with 21.3% for the DUP, 13.5% for Alliance, 11.2% for the UUP and 9.1% for the SDLP.
It has been a disappointing weekend for the SDLP as it has been soundly outpaced by rivals Sinn Féin and the Alliance in constituencies, with outgoing infrastructure minister Mallon losing out to the Alliance’s Nuala McAllister.
Mallon stayed in the race until the final stage of the count on Saturday evening, when former lord mayor Nuala McAllister (Alliance) became the fifth and final MLA elected in the constituency.
It has been a privilege to serve the people of North Belfast as a Councillor and then a MLA for the past 12 years. I want to thank every single person who came out to vote for me over that time. Time for a new chapter and lots and lots of time with these three. pic.twitter.com/DqaFJN8kS1
— Nichola Mallon (@NicholaMallon) May 7, 2022
Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly and Carál Ná Chuilán were both elected on the first count on Friday.
However the remaining candidates faced an agonising wait across two days for the remaining three seats on Stormont’s benches for the constituency to be filled.
DUP candidate Philip Brett was elected at the 10th count and his party colleague Brian Kingston took the fourth seat at the following stage of the count.
Throughout the count, McAllister remained several hundred votes ahead of Mallon, with the gap narrowing slightly as the count went on.
However at the 11th stage, Mallon was eliminated and Allister was elected.
Tributes were paid to Mallon’s work during acceptance speeches.
Mr Kelly described politics as “brutal” and thanked Mallon for her work.
He said his party offered a positive message.
“This is a democratic vote as it has been in every other constituency and all that I would ask is that those who were elected after that democratic vote is that we do get in, we do set up the Executive and that we move ahead for the people who elected us to do that very job,” he said.
“We are certainly ready to start on Monday.”
Mr Brett dedicated his win to his late father, who he described as epitomising what he wanted to do in working for all the people of North Belfast.
He also dedicated it to his late brother, who was killed by loyalist paramilitaries in 2001, who he said represented what he wanted to deliver in North Belfast.
McAllister described an “undoubtedly great day for Alliance”.
She said she was so proud “after many elections” to be elected as an MLA.
She also said she wanted to pay tribute to all of the work that Mallon did, adding: “I know we haven’t seen the end of Nichola Mallon”, to applause.
Her party leader Naomi Long has said nothing can be delivered without government in Northern Ireland after her party enjoyed historic success in the Assembly election.
Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has been elected in Upper Bann despite earlier fears he could lose his seat.
As counting continued into Saturday afternoon, Sinn Féin appeared to be remaining on course to emerge as the largest Stormont party.
Among Sinn Féin’s strong results was its holding four of the five Assembly seats in West Belfast.
Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit picked up the fifth and final seat in the constituency to return the party to its same strength in the constituency as 2017.
It was one of the most contested constituencies in Northern Ireland, with 17 candidates.
Danny Baker (Sinn Féin) was elected on the first count at Titanic Exhibition Centre on Friday before a long wait for the other four MLAs who were returned late Saturday afternoon.
The Alliance Party is the other main winner from the election, with a surge of support for the cross-community party likely to make it the third largest at Stormont, ahead of the UUP and SDLP, who have both had disappointing results.
Speaking at the Jordanstown count centre on Saturday after party candidate Patricia O’Lynn had won the final seat in North Antrim from DUP veteran Mervyn Storey, Long said she was excited about what her party could achieve at Stormont.
She said: “We went to the electorate based on a record of strong delivery in the last two-and-a-half years.
“We need to get in there (Stormont) on Monday because without government we can’t deliver anything in Northern Ireland.
“I think given all the challenges that we face, if we squander this opportunity people will not forgive us, so we need to get in there.”
The DUP, led by Jeffrey Donaldson, will comfortably retain its position as the largest unionist party despite a drop in its overall share of the vote.
Speaking at the count at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Donaldson said unionism “has held its ground”.
“The unionist vote remains strong, we are the largest designation in the Assembly, I think there is a lot of spin around results and I’m very pleased with how the DUP has done in our constituencies,” he said.
“We’ve held a remarkable number of seats where people were predicting all kinds of negative things, so we have strong foundations, we continue to build on them.”
Asked whether Northern Ireland will have devolved government in 2022, Donaldson said: “Let’s cross all the bridges when we get to them.”
He also said he will make it clear next week whether he will return to Stormont or remain at Westminster.
“The party officers will sit down, we will consider what we need to do now to get the action that is required from the Government, I will be making my decision clear on all of that early next week,” he told the BBC.
UUP leader Mr Beattie said voters had flocked to Alliance because they had been “turned off by angry, negative unionism”.
He said: “I am from Upper Bann, I have had to make unpopular decisions in the direction of the party as party leader and that may well have had an effect on me, but these are the sort of things you go through all the time when you’re thinking about an election.
“People are going to the likes of the Alliance Party in droves because they’re being turned off by that angry, negative unionism.”
Sinn Féin’s vice president, Michelle O’Neill, was elected on the first count in Mid Ulster, with Alliance leader Long topping the poll in East Belfast.
TUV leader Allister retained his seat in North Antrim, but it is looking unlikely his party will win any further seats.
Donaldson was elected on the first count in Lagan Valley.
O’Neill was surrounded by party colleagues and supporters as she topped the poll in Mid Ulster.
She said that Sinn Féin wanted to “together work in partnership with others”.
“That is the only way we will achieve much, much more for people here, whether in terms of the cost-of-living crisis or trying to fix our health service.”
It has been such a privilege to have been a South Belfast MLA. I am so proud of the team I have had with me & all we achieved in the time. Thank you to everyone who voted #Green #AE22 💚
— Clare Bailey (@ClareBaileyGPNI) May 7, 2022
The Alliance Party gained a seat in South Belfast as Green Party leader, Clare Bailey, lost out.
Sinn Féin’s Deirdre Hargey topped the poll in the constituency on Friday and was elected on the first count.
The late Christopher Stalford, who represented the constituency for the DUP before his sudden death earlier this year, was remembered during acceptance speeches.
Hargey recalled him at previous counts checking the counting of the votes, and extended her best wishes to his family.
The SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole was the third MLA returned in South Belfast before the race narrowed to the two Alliance candidates, Paula Bradshaw and Kate Nicholl, Ulster Unionist candidate, Stephen McCarthy, and Bailey.
O’Toole also paid tribute to Stalford.
He said it had been a “very difficult” election for his party, but said “there will be another day, another hour for social democratic and labour politics in this place”.
He also congratulated Sinn Féin and the Alliance Party, while expressing regret that Bailey had not been returned, paying tribute to her work over the last six years, particularly her work on a climate change bill.
Bradshaw was elected on the seventh stage of the count, and her party colleague, Nicholl, joined her on the eighth stage.
Nicholl, who is expecting a child, joked she was worried that she was going to go into labour, as she was declared elected.
She said she recognised others were disappointed following the count, particularly the Green Party, and pledged to work for them, too.
“We’re not to let them down,” she said.
Nicholl, who is the current Belfast Lord Mayor, is also the first Stormont MLA to have been born in Zimbabwe.
Our city is changing, diversity, and I really want to represent everyone in our city, to know they are valued, they are important and they matter.
Some 239 candidates stood across 18 constituencies.
Five Assembly seats are up for grabs in each of the 18 constituencies.
Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote proportional representation electoral system.
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