The Northern Ireland Peace Process is under new pressure after election victories by the Democratic Unionists hardened demands for decommissioning.
The DUP now have five MPs in the new Westminster parliament, the highest in the party's history.
Sinn Féin pulled off dramatic coups in West Tyrone and Fermanagh-South Tyrone. With Mr Gerry Adams winning in West Belfast and Mr Martin McGuinness retaining his seat in mid-Ulster, it overtook the SDLP for the first time.
It also shook Mr David Trimbles's Ulster Unionist Party, already devastated by big losses in key constituencies where support soared for his opponents in the DUP.
While the Ulster Unionists ousted Mr Robert McCartney in North Down, regained South Antrim and just held East Antrim, the party paid a big price by sticking by the Belfast Agreement.
Losing West Tyrone and North Belfast was expected, but defeats in Strangford, East Derry, and particularly Fermanagh-South Tyrone by the narrowest of margins - just 53 votes - was a huge blow.
The Fermanagh-South Tyrone result may be challenged in the High Court over Unionist claims of after hours voting in a republican area of the border constituency.
The First Minister has pledged to resign if decommissioning is not completed by July 1st.
He needed police protection from a hostile and screaming crowd when he left Banbridge, Co Down yesterday after his Upper Bann majority of 15,000 was shredded. The DUP came to within 2,000 votes of defeating him.
The SDLP also suffered big hits from Sinn Féin who got massive support from first time voters. Mr Bríd Rodgers, the agriculture minister, lost West Tyrone.
This is the state of the parties after the election:
Ulster Unionists - 6,
Democratic Unionists - 5,
Sinn Fein - 4,
SDLP - 3.
PA