By the time the outcome of the South Down elections was finally announced late yesterday afternoon, it was only to reveal how little the constituency’s political landscape had changed.
As in the last assembly elections in 2007, both Sinn Féin and the SDLP won two seats in the area, while the DUP and UUP won a single seat each.
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie was the only candidate to be returned to her seat after the first count on Friday night, the 8,506 first preference votes she received well in excess of the 5,961 quota for the constituency.
A second round later that night revealed that Sinn Féin’s Caitriona Ruane, who received 5,955 votes, had also been elected to an assembly seat, as was Jim Wells of the DUP, on the fifth round the next day.
Although there had been some speculation about the UUP’s difficulties in this area, John McCallister secured a seat for the party in the following round, while Willie Clarke of Sinn Féin and the SDLP’s Karen McKevitt were finally elected in the seventh and ninth rounds respectively.
Electoral turnout was comparatively poor in the area, with only 56.8 per cent of the electorate going out to vote.