Smiles and late-night tears during arduous election count

There were teary late-night speeches, beaming smiles and tense moments in the three count centres across Northern Ireland as what would be an historic election result became clear.

After the counts dragged on into a second day in all three centres, some prominent names were lost as the main gains were made by Sinn Fein and Alliance.

With Sinn Fein poised to possibly increase their seat intake and win the First Minister position for the first time, its president Mary Lou McDonald and leader in the North, Michelle O’Neill, arrived to much fanfare at the Belfast count centre on Friday.

At the centre of a bustle of camera flashes and jostling reporters, Ms McDonald told reporters that this was “the election of a generation”, and would later tell the BBC that it was significant because it was “a moment of equality”.

“There is no job that’s beyond anyone’s reach.”

Sinn Fein scooped up 29% of first preference votes, while the DUP gathered 21%. This leapfrogged the 2017 first preference results, where Sinn Fein gathered 27.9% and the DUP picked up 28.1%.

There were also big smiles from Alliance party members, who claimed some significant gains early on. Nabbing the party’s first seat in South Down, it also bagged two seats in South Belfast – despite only having just over one quota in 2017.

Alliance’s Kellie Armstrong, who was the first MLA elected on Friday, said she was finally comfortable using the term Alliance surge.

“I’ve held back using the word surge until now but I think I’m feeling it now.

“There is precious little hope available for people at the minute, it has been a pretty grim couple of years and the politics has been pretty grim to match it.

“We just offered people hope that things could be better and that’s what we want to deliver on.”

The party has more than doubled its seat count from eight to 17, the largest number of seats the party has ever had.

Outgoing agriculture minister and former DUP leader Edwin Poots was elected to South Belfast late on Friday after the fifth count, and became overcome with emotion.

“It should have been Chris here,” he said, referring to the late South Belfast MLA Christopher Stalford, who died in February at the age of 39.

“He would have loved it, loved to have been a part of it.”

In the Magherafelt count centre, the arrival of Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill at about 3pm on Saturday briefly overwhelmed the bustling count centre.

Sinn Fein candidates formed a guard of honour for the two women, with passersby running the gauntlets of Sinn Fein supporters and representatives to good-natured whoops and cheers.

They basked in their victory, surrounded by successful candidates, and Ms McDonald watched as Ms O’Neill was officially declared elected.

Doug Beattie had fewer happy candidates to surround him.

Flanked by Ryan McCready, Mr Beattie pointed to the success of the young Foyle candidate who boosted the party’s vote to challenge the DUP in the constituency.

But while he insisted that he was not unhappy with the party performance, the media fanfare around Mr Beattie was short-lived – moving to the Sinn Fein politicians once it became clear his seat was safe.

In the count centre at Ulster University in Jordanstown,  the process moved at a slightly quicker pace than the other two centres, with three of the five constituency counts completed on Friday.

One of the lighter moments was provided during the official declaration of results for the Lagan Valley constituency, when the returning officer announced that new Alliance MLA Sorcha Eastwood was a member of the SDLP.

Ms Eastwood looked bemused and the watching crowd quickly pointed out the error, which was clarified.

During his speech, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson quipped that the returning officer had provided “the only smile of the day” for the SDLP.

In his conciliatory acceptance speech for the Belfast South constituency, SDLP’s MLA Matthew O’Toole acknowledged that this was “a difficult election” for the SDLP.

“We ran what we thought was an energetic, people-focused campaign, and getting hugely positive responses on doorsteps. But that has not translated into as many votes as we wanted.”

Mr O’Toole congratulated Sinn Fein and Alliance in pitching a message that resonated with voters, and paid tribute to Green Party leader Clare Bailey after she lost her seat in the South Belfast constituency, for her work on climate change legislation in particular.

“This has been an exhausting six weeks, and I think we probably have an exhausting period here of negotiations and discussions on forming an Assembly and Executive.”

There were also moments of hubris, as candidates paid tribute to those who did not manage to get elected, or re-elected.

Nuala McAllister, the Alliance candidate for Belfast North, who nabbed the last seat in the constituency ahead of former infrastructure minister and SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon, paid tribute to Ms Mallon in her acceptance speech.

To the sound of the count tables and equipment being packed away at the Belfast count centre on Saturday, and with Ms Mallon absent, Ms McAllister said: “Politics, we know, is a difficult game, and it’s really hard for those of us who put ourselves out there.

“I want to pay tribute to all the work that Nichola Mallon has done, and I know that we haven’t seen the end of Nichola Mallon.”