DUP ahead in election race

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists were tonight leading David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists in the battle for Northern Ireland Assembly seats.

As of 6pm, 23 Stormont seats had been declared.

The DUP had 10 Assembly members compared to the Ulster Unionists’ seven seats.

Sinn Féin was leading the battle within nationalism with five seats to the SDLP’s one.

With 14 of the 18 constituencies declaring results, the DUP had the greatest share of the first preference vote with 26.56%.

Sinn Féin had the second highest share of the vote with 23.44%.

The Ulster Unionists were on 22.87% and the SDLP on 16.26% of the vote.

Smaller cross community and unionist parties were feeling the squeeze.

The cross community Alliance Party had 3.92% of the vote, while the loyalist Progressive Unionists were struggling to hold on to their two seats with only 1.37% of the vote.

The cross community Women’s Coalition was also running at 0.93% and was facing losing its two seats.