Council Election Counting Underway As SF/DUP Consider Stormont Executive Ministries

As the largest parties in the coming Northern Ireland Assembly discuss the make-up of the new Executive today, ballots from NI's third poll are being counted - four days after the electorate cast their votes.

Votes were cast on Thursday in a three-way ballot - to elect MLAs, councillors and to have the chance to say yes or no to the alternative vote in Westminster elections (AV).

There has already been severe criticism over the length of time it took to complete the Assembly count, so the Chief Electoral Officer Graham Shields, will be under as much scrutiny as his counting staff to make the process more efficient.

However, the results of the local councils are not expected to be announced until Monday night - despite the efforts of more than 1,000 election workers in what is the first council election to be held in NI since 2005.

The Assembly election results were supposed to be announced on Friday evening but thanks to numerous delays, the process ran long into Saturday after delays in the verification process.

The Sinn Fein MLA Francie Molloy has even made an official complaint to the Chief Electoral Office over the slowness of the count.

He said it was 27 hours from the first to the final result in Mr Molloy's Mid-Ulster constituency and he has placed an official complaint to the Chief Electoral Office - but is still waiting for a response.

The only positive was that it was Friday evening - as planned when - it was revealed Northern Ireland voted against the Alternative Vote system - ironically - in a single-vote style referendum.

Executive Power

While keeping a watching brief on the council vote, the two largest parties in the - new - Northern Ireland Assembly are to discuss the make-up of the new Executive today.

DUP Leader Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness (pictured) of Sinn Fein are expected to consider the allocation of Ministries after the DUP and Sinn Fein won the most seats with 38 and 29.

Among the losers was the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), who are one MLA short of being able to claim two Ministries in the power-sharing cabinet - as in the last administration.

However, David McClarty, who left the UUP following a row with his local constituency party, will not be drawn on whether he will return to the party in order to strengthen its position.

However, if that comes to pass, then the Alliance Party Leader David Ford may have cause to complain.

He believes his party is entitled to a ministry when the controversial D'Hondt [Ministerial selection] mechanism is triggered at the Assembly and if the UUP adds an independent MLA to its quota - the party could seek legal redress as Alliance held only the Justice portfolio following a different cross-community vote procedure introduced in the Hillsborough Agreement.

Such a dispute would cloud earlier celebrations where the East Belfast Alliance MP, Naomi Long, said she was thrilled that two Alliance MLAs had been elected to the Assembly in East Belfast and thrilled at the Alliance result across Northern Ireland.

Naomi Long MP - who ousted the DUP Leader Peter Robinson at the Westminster poll last year - said: "This has been a great election for Alliance. I am absolutely thrilled at our performance in East Belfast. This is the first time since 1982 that Alliance has returned two Assembly Members in East Belfast.

"Our vote has increased significantly over that of the last Assembly election in East Belfast."

Overall the DUP won 38 seats, Sinn Fein 29, the Ulster Unionist Party took 16, the SDLP 14 and the Alliance Party, eight.

Traditional Unionist Voice has one - its party leader - as did the Green party with one 'unionist' Independent, David McClarty, also being elected.

(BMcC/GK)