The DUP and Sinn Féin were tonight poised for a resounding success in the North's Assembly elections, with predictions of significant losses for the Ulster Unionist Party.
But the results will come against the background of a record low voter turnout - which is predicted to reach a figure of 55 per cent or lower.
The election process has also been hit by slow vote counting across Northern Ireland, with the first handful of results declared 20 hours after the polls closed and ten hours after ballot boxes were opened.
Election officials blamed the complexity of having to deal with ballot papers from the Assembly election, local council elections and the UK-wide AV referendum at the same time.
Tallies of party performance gave clear indications of a strong showing by the DUP and Sinn Féin, as well as gains for the cross-community Alliance Party.
The final shape of the 108 seat Stormont legislature will not be known until Saturday evening. But the delays in counts were not all blamed on the complexity of the process.
In the Omagh count centre electoral staff reportedly used hairdryers to peel apart votes that had become sodden when a ballot box got wet in the rain.
Four years ago the DUP won 36 seats against 28 for Sinn Fein, with the Ulster Unionist Party taking 18 seats, the SDLP 16, and Alliance seven.
With 11 seats filled out of 108 tonight, the party shares are; Sinn Féin 4 DUP 3 SDLP 2 UUP 2.
The first result declared tonight was in the Border constituency of Newry and Armagh where the sitting Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy topped the poll. The SDLP's Dominic Bradley and Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy were also elected on the first count.
Gregory Campbell of the DUP, who was elected for East Derry on the first count, expressed confidence the party would hold its three seats in the constituency. In Lagan Valley Edwin Poots was safely returned for the DUP with the UUP's Basil McCrea also elected.
In North Antrim the Traditional Unionist Voice party leader Jim Allister was reported to be polling well and seemed likely to win a seat. The TUV appeared to be polling disappointingly elsewhere.
But across the North, the Ulster Unionist Party in particular seemed in danger of suffering losses. This follows a disastrous general election in which its partnership with the Conservatives failed to win it a single seat.
There is even a risk that the Ulster Unionists could slip into fourth place at the Assembly, behind the SDLP.
But with each of the 18 constituencies returning six Assembly members, the battle for the last seat will prove crucial in determining the final make-up of the next Stormont regime.
Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott told the BBC it was too early to know the fate of his party.
But turnout may also be a factor in undermining the Ulster Unionists, with some observers arguing that the skilled vote management of the DUP and Sinn Féin might help them get over the line in tight contests.
DUP leader Peter Robinson said: “It is very pleasing and rewarding to hear that right across the province our candidates are doing so well because they put a lot of work into it.
“We didn’t ask for a mandate from the people to enhance the standing of the Democratic Unionist Party, we asked for a mandate to keep Northern Ireland moving forward.”
Mr Robinson was set to romp home in East Belfast despite having the lost the constituency’s Westminster seat in the general election.
His career was rocked last year by the revelations that his wife and former MP Iris Robinson had an affair with a teenager and had secured loans from developers to help her lover set up a business.
The DUP leader has since made a major political recovery, but he declined to comment on his likely revival in East Belfast until the votes were counted.
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness said there was “considerable dismay” over the delay in vote counting.
But he welcomed indications of success for Sinn Féin and said the electorate was endorsing the parties who had co-operated to deliver for people at Stormont.
His claims were endorsed by his party president Gerry Adams, who now sits in the Dáil, who visited the count centre dealing with his former west Belfast constituency.
Mr Adams said he believed his party was set to have a good election. He argued Sinn Féin had been reinvigorated by its recent success in the Dáil election . In what he characterised as a further boost to the party’s profile as the only all-Ireland party, Sinn Féin last week also won three seats in the Irish senate.
Mr Adams said the UUP and the SDLP both held seats in the last ministerial Executive at Stormont, but had criticised the conduct of the DUP and Sinn Féin, who were the dominant presence in the outgoing administration.
The smaller parties had tried to criticise the NI government, despite being part of it, and now appeared to have been punished by voters, Mr Adams said.
The slow pace of the count led to calls tonight for an inquiry into why the counts were so slow. The DUP MP for North Belfast Nigel Dodds said the pace of the counts was getting to be “ridiculous”.
Former DUP enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said the situation was approaching “farce”. She said she did not blame the counters but that the delays were proving “horrendous” for the candidates and their agents and supporters.
Additional reporting by PA