The Alliance Party’s Sorcha Eastwood has defeated the DUP in Lagan Valley, the seat formerly held by ex-DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who quit the leadership in March after being charged with historical sexual offences.
She said: “It’s a fantastic night for us, but it’s also a fantastic night for the people of Lagan Valley.”
“I’m a Lagan Valley girl born and bred, and this has been in our heart for a long time and I’m just delighted,” the Lagan Valley candidate said.
She said it was a “huge” moment for the party, for her and her community.
“We’ve always taken a vote from right across the community, that’s what we’ve done tonight, and we’ve done it really well,” she said, thanking the Alliance team in the constituency.
However, Alliance looks set for defeat in its two other main targets – North Down and East Belfast.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson looks well placed to beat Alliance Party leader Naomi Long for the fourth successive election in East Belfast.
In North Down, the cross-community party’s deputy leader Stephen Farry has all but conceded to independent unionist Alex Easton.
In other early results in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin retained its Mid-Ulster seat with victory for Cathal Mallaghan, while the DUP held Upper Bann.
Sinn Fein’s John Finucane has been re-elected as an MP for Belfast North, while the DUP’s Sammy Wilson has been re-elected as an MP for East Antrim.
Sinn Féin’s Orfhlaith Begley was re-elected as a West Tyrone MP, while her party colleague Daire Hughes have been elected to the Newry and Armagh constituency.
The DUP’s Carla Lockhart was also re-elected as an MP for Upper Bann.
One race that few predicted would be tight was North Antrim, but the DUP’s Ian Paisley is locked in a major battle to retain his seat and hold off the challenge of TUV leader Jim Allister.
The UUP is increasingly hopeful former Stormont health minister Robin Swann can take a seat from the DUP in South Antrim.
Sinn Féin is confident it can hold off the UUP in the ever-close Fermanagh and South Tyrone count, where former RCN general secretary Pat Cullen stood against Ulster Unionist councillor Diana Armstrong.
Asked if Sinn Féin was nervous about the result in the constituency, Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill said: “We’re feeling very confident that it has been a good poll from us across the board but it’s very early in the evening.”
Ms O’Neill added: “The politics of this election was very much about the politics here at home, about making the Executive and the Assembly work.”
All eyes are on the race for the greatest number of seats across Northern Ireland, with the potential of Sinn Féin cementing its position as the largest party in the region, having come out on top in the last Assembly and local council polls.
Sinn Féin, which ran a relatively low-key campaign, could secure first place by retaining the seven seats it already holds, if the DUP drops down from the eight seats it won in 2019.
The DUP is under significant pressure in a number of constituencies and could be in for a bruising night.
Mr Robinson’s elevation to the leadership of his party came after the DUP suffered a seismic shock when former leader Donaldson quit.
Apart from the sudden departure of Donaldson from the political stage, the DUP has also been under fire from unionist rivals amid claims it oversold a Government package of measures on post-Brexit trading arrangements that the party used to justify the end of its two-year boycott on devolution at Stormont in January. - PA
