Alliance becomes Stormont’s third largest party for first time

(left to right) Alliance Party of NI Assembly elected candidates Kate Nicholl, party leader Naomi Long and Paula Bradshaw (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ahead of the election, Alliance leader Naomi Long predicted that a big result for her party could herald the end of a political system based on binary division.

A big result is certainly what Alliance delivered, increasing its first preference vote share by about 4.5% to 13.5% and leapfrogging the struggling UUP and SDLP to become Stormont’s third largest party for the first time.