NI voters head to polls for snap election after divisive campaign

Under a year from the last election, the Northern Ireland executive of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin collapsed – leading to the new ballot.

She was joined by daughter Saoirse and son Ryan, who has just turned 18 was voting for the first time, telling reporters: “It’s great that so many people are coming out to vote”.

But with relations at their lowest point in a decade, Sinn Fein has insisted that Foster step aside while months of investigations begin into a botched green energy scheme she established – or the party will not re-enter government.

The elections – triggered by the collapse of devolved government in Northern Ireland six weeks ago following controversy over a botched green energy scheme – saw turnout hit its highest level, 65%, in nearly two decades.

The SDLP and UUP have warned that they may try to form an alternative, more moderate power-sharing executive, although they’re unlikely to have the numbers to pull it off. James Brokenshire, the Northern Irish secretary, may threaten direct rule from London – an outcome Sinn Féin, in particular, will be desperate to avoid. That figure increases to 44.4% if the All-Ireland socialist People Before Profit seat secured by Gerry Carroll is included, a significant advance on the 37% share of the overall seats secured in 2016 when 40 seats from the 108 seat chamber were secured by the nationalist parties. That now seems unlikely.

Perhaps the biggest casualty, so far, has been the Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt who held his seat, but resigned as party leader on Friday. Meanwhile, Ms. O’Neill infuriated unionists by attending a memorial service for four IRA men shot by British soldiers in 1992.

Sinn Fein dropped five, from 39 to 34. The DUP backed Brexit.

The key symbolic issue is whether Sinn Fein can overtake the Democratic Unionists and become the top party in Northern Ireland, a long-disputed corner of the United Kingdom, for the first time.

All 90 seats were declared on Saturday morning with the DUP dropping from 38 to 28 and the Sinn Fein rising to 27.

For the first time in its history, Northern Ireland has a nationalist majority in Stormont, the seat of the region’s devolved government.

With the votes in, Ms.

Almost two thirds of the electorate voted in yesterday’s poll – the power-sharing executive collapsed in January – after Sinn Fein quit.

Britain has signalled its intention to leave the EU’s customs union after Brexit, raising fears of a new hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain in the EU. “It is very clear in terms of unionism that it is the DUP that speaks for unionism”.