With protracted delays in the counting of votes for the Fermanagh-South Tyrone and West Tyrone constituencies, afternoon tallies indicated that Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party were maintaining strong positions in both constituencies.
A variety of factors contributed to delays in the counting, with reports of some ballot boxes getting soaked by the rain and voting papers having to be dried-out with hairdryers.
A computer difficulty also complicated matters with officials unable to get access to figures for a period of time.
It was also reported that postal ballots were omitted in the initial verification of the Fermanagh-South Tyrone votes.
In Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Sinn Féin agriculture minister Michelle Gildernew was doing well in the tallies, securing an estimated 9,000-plus votes, about 3,000 ahead of her executive colleague, enterprise minister Arlene Foster of the DUP.
Coming in third place behind them was Ulster Unionist Party leader Tom Elliott on a tally figure of just over 5,800 votes and Sinn Féin’s Phil Flanagan just about 5,000.
Tommy Gallagher of the Social Democratic and Labour Party was scoring almost 4,500 votes and the key issue was whether he would retain his seat or be squeezed out by Sinn Féin transfers.
In the Sinn Féin stronghold of West Tyrone, the party’s Barry McElduff was close to 6,000 votes with Sinn Féin colleagues Pat Doherty and Michaela Boyle some 300-400 votes behind him.
The DUP was also polling well, with outgoing MLAs Allan Bresland and Thomas Buchanan both securing more than 4,000 votes. Ross Hussey of the UUP, the SDLP’s Joe Byrne and Sinn Féin’s Declan McAleer were jockeying for position with more than 3,000 votes each.
