Arlene Foster's first preferences up by 2,200

Fermanagh-South Tyrone: Five of the six MLAs who won Assembly seats in 2003 were re-elected in Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Fermanagh-South Tyrone:Five of the six MLAs who won Assembly seats in 2003 were re-elected in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Former UUP MLA Arlene Foster, who defected to the DUP in 2003, was the big winner topping the poll.

She managed not only to retain her base but boosted her first-preference votes by more than 2,200. She finished slightly ahead of constituency rival Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew who won the seat in the 2005 Westminster election.

Ms Foster again challenged remarks made last month by Ms Gildernew who said she would not tell the PSNI if she knew republicans were hiding guns.

"Devolution comes at a price and the price is the support for democracy," she said.

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"One of the principles of democracy is support for law and order. You can't pick what parts of law and order you support. If there is a reasonable suspicion and there is evidence against anybody that they have committed a crime, they must . . . be brought to justice."

Her running mate Maurice Murrow, who was also elected, referred to the arrest yesterday of two republicans in connection with an incident which happened in 1981.

He said: "Some have had to wait for 25 years for justice. When others were asked to comment on it, they found it dreadful that someone should be questioned by the police for their activities. If that is the sign of their support for policing, then that's not good enough".

Ms Gildernew said the arrests of the independent republican candidate Gerry McGeough and Sinn Féin activist Vincent McAnespie were a "disgrace".

Sinn Féin councillor Gerry McHugh, who edged out party rival and former IRA prisoner Seán Lynch for a second seat, said policing was another obstacle in the way of devolved government.

"We went to the trouble of the Good Friday agreement and Patten because we had a rotten police force and we still have a rotten police force. It will take some amount of work to make them better than what we had until recently."

There was some consolation for the SDLP with sitting MLA Tommy Gallagher thwarting Sinn Féin's ambitions to win a third seat. His vote held up well and he was comfortably elected with transfers from his running mate Vincent Currie.

UUP MLA Tom Elliott bucked the trend in an otherwise disappointing poll for the Ulster Unionists. His vote was up by 10 per cent. The two dissident republican candidates, Gerry McGeough and Michael McManus, polled just 1,200 votes between them.