The big story in Strangford, as in many other constituencies, is the success of Alliance which increased its representation from one to two at the expense of the DUP.
“The Alliance surge is real,” declared Kellie Armstrong, first home and poll-topper for the party, to an exuberant bunch of supporters at the count centre in the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast on Saturday. And indeed it is. The colleague elected with her was Nick Mathison, a councillor with Ards and North Down Council.
The sub-plot here was whether former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Mike Nesbitt would retain his seat after he admitted on Friday that he was in trouble.
But he was elected on the ninth and final count prompting him to joke at his own expense about “some buck eejit in a pink shirt saying my seat is at risk”.
Previously, the DUP had three seats but it is now down to two in Strangford after long-serving member and former minister Peter Weir lost his seat.
The two successful DUP candidates here were another former minister, Michelle McIlveen, and Harry Harvey. Ms McIlveen admitted that it was a “bitter-sweet” moment due to Mr Weir losing his seat. She ended her speech by declaring “God save the Queen”.
It was a disappointing first time out as a candidate for the SDLP’s Conor Houston who failed to make the breakthrough in this constituency which the party has targeted for years.
The main loser in Strangford was Stephen Cooper of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party who polled well with 5,186 votes and by the last count saw his vote rise through transfers to 5,924 votes. But it wasn’t enough to catch Mr Mathison who from a much lower first-preference vote of 2,822 did far better in transfers and exceeded Mr Cooper’s vote by 249.
Mr Mathison concluded his acceptance speech with a rallying call: “The people have sent a very clear message to Northern Ireland today; they are looking for a politics that delivers. They don’t want protests, they don’t want division, they don’t want deadlock. They want their Assembly to work and I am committed to going back in with a much larger Alliance team to make that happen.”
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Five seats filled: Kellie Armstrong (Alliance), Michelle McIlveen (DUP), Harry Harvey (DUP), Mike Nesbitt (UUP), Nick Mathison (Alliance).
