Northern Ireland Assembly: DUP Wins 38 Seats

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster is Northern Ireland's First Minister-elect after her party won 38 of the 108 seats in the Stormont Assembly.

Mrs Foster, who survived an IRA bombing in 1988, will continue to share political power with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander.

Sinn Fein won 28 seats with the Ulster Unionists on 16, SDLP 12, Alliance eight, People Before Profit Alliance two, Green Party two, with the Traditional Unionist Voice and independent Claire Sugden winning one each.

All 108 seats have now been declared.

The 30-seat threshold, which the DUP has passed, is significant because parties with this strength are able to launch a 'petition of concern' which can block legislation.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said on Friday evening that she is expecting to be returned as Northern Ireland's First Minister, as the DUP leader topped the poll in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

She said: "I feel great, it is a great endorsement of our campaign and I am absolutely delighted."

Counting in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, which finished late on Saturday afternoon, took longer than elsewhere because of the country's voting system.

Sky News Ireland Correspondent David Blevins said: "Northern Ireland uses the Single Transferable Vote system - a form of Proportional Representation - to elect members of the Assembly.

"Voters rank candidates in order of preference by marking 1, 2, 3, etc. next to names on a ballot paper. Each candidate needs a minimum number of votes to be elected - the 'quota'.

"If a candidate is eliminated or has more votes than are needed to fill the quota, their surplus votes are transferred to the remaining candidates, hence the long process."

In all, 703,744 people voted in the election, representing a turnout of 54.91%, slightly from the 55.64% turnout in the 2011 assembly election.

The poll was the first chance to vote for people born after the historic Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which paved the way for a devolved power-sharing government.

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