It’s all over bar the shouting (and crying)… Final news: Deeney holds at the expense of the SDLP; and Burns nicks South Antrim. I left Sammy Gardiner’s transfers out when I talked to Sammy, so Ward was not as close as we thought. But there is close to three nationalist seats in Upper Bann next time out. The final totals make very interesting reading:DUP increase their status as top party with 36 seats. That should give them four seats in the new Executive.
SF move easily past a falling UUP to take second place with 28 seats, which should translate to three top table seats.
UUP fall down the league but stop at 18 (it could have been much, much worse). They should take two Ministries.
SDLP now have 16 seats. Not a bad fall back, but enough to mean that they get only one seat in the Executive, should they wish to take it of course. They could join Alliance and others to make the opposition to a more credible 26 in the 109 strong chamber.
Overall the total of those representatives likely to designate as ‘Unionist’ now stands at 55.
All figures courtesy of Sammy Morse!!
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty