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Sinn Féin and DUP remain the biggest parties in Northern Ireland

The DUP and Sinn Féin will remain the biggest parties in the North's power sharing ad...
Newstalk
Newstalk

17.01 7 May 2016


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Sinn Féin and DUP remain the b...

Sinn Féin and DUP remain the biggest parties in Northern Ireland

Newstalk
Newstalk

17.01 7 May 2016


Share this article


The DUP and Sinn Féin will remain the biggest parties in the North's power sharing administration as a result of the Northern Ireland Assembly Election.

Counting has concluded, two days after the vote took place on Thursday.

DUP leader Arlene Foster will return as First Minister, as her party claimed 38 seats, while Sinn Féin finished with 28. This number falls just shy of the 29 they won in the election five years ago.

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Meanwhile, Martin McGuinness has also been elected and will retain the second position.

Counting finished just before 5pm on Saturday. The final result was announced in Upper Bann, where Sinn Féin education minister John O’Dowd resisted the efforts of former SDLP deputy leader Dolores Kelly for the sixth seat.

In addition to the seats allocated to the DUP and Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists earned 16, the SDLP took 12 seats, and the Alliance picked up eight.

People Before Profit Alliance and the Green Party both claimed two seats while the Traditional Unionist Voice and independent Claire Sugden finished with one each.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is hoping they'll work well together:

"It worked with Ian Paisley, it worked with Peter Robinson. I'd like to think that the first woman to be first minister would show those two men up and show that real progress can be made and Martin McGuinness as we know, is a peace maker par excellence, so we'll go at it with a full heart." 


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