West Belfast: West Belfast provided the earliest and perhaps the biggest shock with former MP Dr Joe Hendron of the SDLP clearly in trouble after the first count and the DUP claiming the final seat after a close struggle with Sinn Féin.
The first count demonstrated impressive voting discipline and management by Sinn Féin and put the party in a strong position to claim four of the six seats and with a good chance of securing a fifth.
Mrs Diane Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party and wife of the North Belfast MP Mr Nigel Dodds, benefited substantially from the transfers of the eliminated Ulster Unionist Party candidate Mr Chris McGimpsey.
The DUP had outpolled its unionist rival by a ratio of 2-1 in first preferences.
Mrs Dodds was deemed elected late last night on the ninth count without reaching the quota.
Unionists did not have a seat here in the last Assembly, despite having nearly a quota between them.
However, it was the SDLP voting pattern which provided the upset. Mr Alex Attwood, the party chairman and policing spokesman, was thought to be facing an uphill struggle to retain the final seat.
However he emerged with 1,100 more first preferences than Dr Hendron, who beat Mr Gerry Adams for the Westminster seat in 1992 but was beaten in 1997, eliminated after the fourth count.
Dr Hendron, a local GP, has been a representative for the past 30 years and was assumed to be in a reasonably secure position, no matter what the scale of the Sinn Féin vote.
His difficulties came as a shock to local SDLP election workers, who had spent the past three weeks campaigning heavily in the constituency for Mr Attwood assuming his was the seat under pressure.
They said that the dispute between the parties over transfers culminated in Mr Adams calling on Sinn Féin voters not to transfer to Mr Attwood.
This may have resulted in SDLP supporters ignoring the party voting strategy and giving Mr Attwood more first preferences and therefore, causing problems for Dr Hendron.
Mr Attwood had campaigned intensively in west Belfast during the final three weeks of the campaign, convinced his seat would have to be fought hard for.
This too could have helped tip the balance away from Dr Hendron.
The Sinn Féin vote management strategy worked in spectacular fashion. Mr Adams polled 6,199 first preferences with the rest of his running mates not more than 1,700 below the 4,694 quota.
Party strategists put their success down to effective planning and sharing-out of the vote, as well as a carefully enacted transfer system.
This gave Sinn Féin four of the six seats, one short of the five it had targeted.
As predicted, the smaller parties were squeezed, with the Alliance Party, which used to hold a quota in west Belfast, polling just 75 votes.