The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) assured itself of at least one seat in the Northern Assembly with a very strong performance by Mr David Ervine in East Belfast.
The other leading spokesman for the loyalist party, Mr Billy Hutchinson, is thought to have a reasonable chance of winning in North Belfast.
Party leade, Mr Hugh Smyth, a former Belfast lord mayor, performed well in West Belfast, winning 2,180 votes. But the unionist vote was so fragmented in that constituency that Mr Smyth appeared incapable of taking enough transfers to break through the quota.
Mr Ernie Purvis in South Belfast polled a creditable 2,112 votes, but again his chances of winning a seat seemed slim.
Mr Ervine, who took 5,114 first preferences in East Belfast, was disappointed with the overall performance of the PUP. "I think in some areas we got squeezed out because of the differences between the pro- and anti-agreement groupings," he said.
He expected that the anti-agreement unionists would do everything in their power to frustrate the Assembly, but nonetheless was confident that it would be able to operate under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Should Mr Hutchinson also take a seat, the PUP would not be represented in the Assembly cabinet but would expect to have places on the committees.
Mr Ervine hoped that a less sectarian form of politics would develop in the North .
This, he believed, would permit the party's effectiveness in promoting socio-economic issues to come to the fore.
"I think that if we can't look to such a vision then we are wasting our time in politics," added Mr Ervine.
