Sinn Féin has won the most first preference votes in an election in Northern Ireland for the first time, as counting continues.
250,388 first preference votes were cast for Sinn Féin, compared with 184,002 for the Democratic Unionist Party and 116,681 for the Alliance Party.
This means that it received 29% of first preference votes, compared with 21.3% for the DUP, 13.5% for Alliance, 11.2% for the Ulster Unionists and 9.1% for the SDLP.
With counting for the 90 Stormont seats continuing, the republican party had won 16 seats, well ahead of the Alliance on seven, the DUP on seven, the Ulster Unionists on three and the SDLP on one.
Sinn Féin is confident that when all votes are counted that will translate into having the most seats in the Stormont Assembly.
That will give it the right to nominate the First Minister, the first time in the history of Northern Ireland that the head of government would be a nationalist.
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