Politicians have criticised the counting process in Northern Ireland's Assembly election after a computer crash was blamed for slowing the count of votes.
"There is an anger building up now," William Hay of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) told the BBC. "We need a better system."
The broadcaster reported the count was slowed by ballot papers being accidentally soaked with water, with counters required to use hair-dryers, and the collapse of ballot tables.
Chief Electoral Officer Graham Shields said yesterday that handling three separate elections is adding to difficulties. "My staff have worked extremely hard," he said.
"The most important part of this process is accuracy, not speed."
There were calls last night for an inquiry into why the counts were so slow. DUP MP for North Belfast Nigel Dodds said the pace of the counts was getting to be “ridiculous”, while Mr McGuinness around teatime said there was “concern and dismay . . . that we have not one seat allocated”.
Former DUP enterprise minister Arlene Foster said the situation was approaching “farce”.
The DUP and Sinn Féin appear firmly on course to maintain their dominant positions in Northern Ireland politics, with Peter Robinson likely to be returned as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister.
Additional reporting Bloomberg