Counting in the Upper Bann constituency continued into the early hours of this morning, reaching completion shortly before 3am.
Sinn Féin's hopes that the party would secure a second seat in the constituency were dashed when, in the seventh count, Johnny McGibbon fell 350 votes short of the SDLP's Dolores Kelly who retained her seat without reaching the quota having secured 5,787 votes.
There was then, no third nationalist seat, despite a favourable change in their demographics in the constituency. Therefore, party-wise the status quo remained the same: one Sinn Féin; one SDLP; two DUP and two UUP.
The latter party sees the only newcomer to the Upper Bann constituency. Joanne Dobson joins Sam Gardiner having overtaken party colleague Colin McCusker, son of the late Harold McCusker, to take the second UUP seat. She reached a total vote of 5,826 in the final count to secure a seat while Gardiner also took seven counts to reach 6,012 votes, short of the quota but enough to ensure election for both candidates.
Sinn Féin candidate John O'Dowd returned to his Assembly seat as the poll-topper in the Upper Bann constituency having secured 6,649 votes on the first count.
The DUP's Sydney Anderson and Stephen Moutray both reached the quota on the fifth count having received 6,052 and 6,085 votes respectively.