Election 2022 Live Blog: Henry McDonald talks to newly elected MLA Diane Forsythe - Who has won a seat so far - Winning Alliance candidate declares ‘God save the queen!’
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Scroll down from the latest news from all the count centres.
Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 2022
Key Events
- Stormont stalemate as Sinn Fein biggest party but DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson sticks to guns on protocol
- Doug Beattie in scrap with Alliance to retain his Upper Bann seat
- Poots takes South Belfast seat but memories of Stalford hurt
- The unionist overall vote stays ahead of the nationalist total, albeit narrowly
The former UUP leader just admitted to the News Letter that he will probably be in a battle for the fifth Strangford seat:
DUP South Down activists predict the final breakdown will be 2 Sinn Fein, 1 SDLP, 1 Alliance and Diane Forsythe Forsythe taking the sole unionist seat in the constituency.
An Ulster Unionist spokesperson has said the party is confident that leader Doug Beattie will win a seat in Upper Bann.
They pointed out that with him sitting on more than 6,000 votes reports of his demise were exaggerated.
Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill has arrived at the Magherafelt count centre.
The Mid Ulster candidate is tipped to become first minister of Northern Ireland if her party can pull off a historic victory in the Assembly elections.
Ms O’Neill was swamped by local and international media as she arrived at the count centre.
She appeared upbeat but declined to speculate about what the results might be.
“It’s very early days, the votes are still being counted.”
“It’s been a really, really positive election campaign,” she told reporters.
South Down DUP activist told News Letter he is confident DUP will retain seat in consistency through Diane Forsythe
UUP vote has fallen dramatically but they are transferring heavily to DUP. He said in neighbouring constituency of Newry and Mourne its expected that TUV candidate will take the only unionist seat there.
Ulster Unionist South Belfast candidate Stephen Mccarthy has told The News Letter that “it’s not looking likely” that he is going win a seat.
While he said it was still early days at around three and a half thousand first preferences Mr Mccarthy conceded it was unlikely he would get over the line. He said Edwin Poots will get elected. The UUP performance in South Belfast reflects an overall bad day for the UUP so far.