Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have polled strongly in the North's Assembly election, while the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists have lost ground since 2003.
The parties are competing for 108 seats in the Stormont Assembly, which is due to be convened on March 26th if agreement on an Executive can be reached. Many counts have finished for the night and are set to resume at 9am tomorrow.
Both DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams have been elected in their constituencies.
Mr Adams topped the poll as expected in West Belfast with four other Sinn Féin candidates close the quota after the first count. In North Antrim Dr Paisley was elected in the first count while his son, Ian Paisley Jnr was elected on the second count.
Sinn Féin's Dáithí McKay was elected in the first round in North Antrim along with the DUP leader.
DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson was the first to be declared elected this afternoon.
Mr Robinson and Naomi Long of the Alliance Party were elected in the first round of counting in East Belfast. Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey was just short of the quota with 4,139 first preference votes. Progressive Unionist Dawn Purvis was also polling well with 3,045 first preference votes.
She was catapulted into standing in the constituency following the unexpected death in January of her predecessor David Ervine.
UK Unionist Robert McCartney's decision to run in all numerous constituencies may have cost him his seat, polling only 1,806 first preference votes in North Down. In that constituency Alex Easton of the DUP crossed the line after the first count.
In North Belfast there was little surprise that Nigel Dodds of the DUP and Gerry Kelly of Sinn Féin were elected after the first round of counting.
In South Belfast, DUP candidate Jimmy Spratt was elected alongside the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell after the first count.
Former Belfast City mayor and Sinn Féin candidate Alex Maskey was also polling well as was Alliance candidate Ann Lo, who is head of the Chinese Welfare Organisation in Belfast.
The DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson was elected in Lagan Valley after the first count with Sinn Féin's Paul Butler also showing strongly.
The DUP's Gregory Campbell - who was elected in East Derry - said his party's vote management was paying off.
Sinn Féin's Pat Doherty and Barry McElduff both reached the quota in West Tyrone after the first count as did Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy and Cathal Boylan in the Newry and Armagh constituency.
In the same constituency William Frazer, head of the Protestant victims' group, Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (Fair), was eliminated.
Northern Ireland was also on course tonight to elect its first Green Party Assembly member. Brian Wilson looked set to win the sixth seat in North Down.
Meanwhile Gerry McGeough, an independent republican candidate in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, was arrested today for questioning about the attempted murder of a soldier in 1981, security sources said today.
Two days of Assembly Election counts got under way earlier this morning at centres in Belfast, Ballymena, Derry, Omagh, Banbridge, Newtownards, Lisburn and Antrim.
More than 1.11 million voters using 600 polling stations will return 108 Assembly members chosen from among 256 candidates. Early indications suggest the turnout was similar to the last Stormont election in November 2003 when slightly more than 63 per cent of the electorate voted.
The result could determine if power sharing will be restored by the deadline of March 26th.
A range of independent candidates including dissident unionists critical of the DUP for considering power sharing and republicans opposed to Sinn Féin's recent move to endorse the Police Service of Northern Ireland are also challenging. The cross-community Alliance Party is also fighting hard to hold on to its six Stormont seats.