South Belfast MP Dr Alasdair McDonnell was elected as the new leader of the SDLP this evening, succeeding South Down MP Margaret Ritchie who announced in September that she was standing down.
Dr McDonnell, with his wife Olivia standing beside him in the Ramada Hotel in south Belfast, spoke of how his election was a hugely "emotional" day for him.
He pledged to deliver a collective leadership, to use the talents of all party members, including the three candidates he defeated, and unify and reinvigorate the party whose fortunes have slumped over recent years.
It now has just one ministry and 14 Assembly seats compared to the 24 seats and the Deputy First Minister post it held after the first Assembly elections in 1998.
Dr McDonnell said his leadership centrally would be about "putting more votes into SDLP ballot boxes" and gaining more ministries in the next Assembly elections which are expected in 2016.
"I intend as far as possible to stoke the SDLP fire in every parish in the North," he added.
"The result has been for me a truly cathartic process and one I think that has helped the party immensely," he told some 600 delegates who attended the conference, not all of whom were entitled to vote.
His election, he added, "was the proudest moment of my political life". He believed the hard-fought campaign between the four candidates had "revved up the engine of this party".
Dr McDonnell's election, was also notable for the strong performance of the youngest candidate, 39-year-old Conall McDevitt, a Dubliner who, like Dr McDonnell, is an Assembly member for South Belfast.
The other candidates were outgoing deputy leader and Mid-Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone and West Belfast MLA Alex Attwood. Voting was by proportional representation with transfers critical in determining the result.
There was just one candidate for the deputy leader position, Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly, who was formally elected.
First Minister Peter Robinson wished Dr McDonnell well and said he looked forward to working with him. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams also congratulated him and hoped he would "display a positive, constructive and forward-looking attitude".