East Antrim: Sinn Féin suffers defeat at the hands of UUP

East Antrim lost its only nationalist seat in the North's Assembly election, with the UUP ousting Sinn Féin stalwart Oliver McMullan.

The veteran republican politician had been fighting with relative newcomer John Stewart for the final seat in East Antrim, but lost out shortly before 8pm on Friday as the results were announced.

It was a blow for Sinn Féin on a day of victories for the party, and is the first time the constituency has been without a nationalist MLA in nearly two decades.

However, Mr Stewart - who lost out on an Assembly seat in the constituency in last May's elections, when he ran for the first time - managed to get over the line after taking surplus votes from the DUP's Gordon Lyons, who was elected in the previous round.

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The DUP held on to two seats, but its candidate Stephen Ross was a casualty of the reduction in the overall number of seats at the Assembly.

However, it was a good day for returning DUP MLA David Hilditch, who topped the poll once again, claiming 6,000 first preference votes.

He admitted it had been a risk to run three DUP candidates in the constituency but said he was pleased with their performances.

He said the challenge now is to ensure a resolution can be found to the current political stalemate in the North.

“These matters have to be dealt with and if we run away from every problem that we have in politics, there will be an election every other month,” he said.

PA