NORTH TALLIES:EARLY TALLIES in the Euro election count in Northern Ireland pointed to a low turnout and potentially a significant change to the pattern of previous elections.
Party sources estimated that support for Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún looked like she could top the poll.
If she does, it will be the first time since direct elections to the parliament in 1979 that the DUP did not win the largest number of first preferences.
Tallies pointed to a significant fall in first preferences for the DUP. The three-way tussle for unionist votes between Diane Dodds, her Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) opponent Jim Allister, and the Ulster Conservative and Unionist candidate Jim Nicholson may mean the fight for the third seat is wide open.
The SDLP said its vote had held up well and the party held out the possibility that Alban Maginness could benefit from the unionist split and from transfers from the smaller parties.
Overall turnout was well down on the last Euro election, when nearly 52 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote.
Indications last night pointed to a fall of about nine or 10 percentage points with about 42 per cent voting. However, the low trend was not evenly spread, with some unionist and working-class areas delivering a poorer turnout than nationalist and republican constituencies.
Sinn Féin seemed to have won about 28 per cent of first preferences while Mr Allister seemed to have polled well, largely at the expense of his former colleagues in the DUP. He quit the party in 2007 following Ian Paisley’s decision to share power at Stormont with Sinn Féin.
Even if the TUV leader fails to defend his European seat, he appears well placed to build a base for the next Assembly election and perhaps for the North Antrim Westminster constituency should he decide to contest it.
Early, incomplete tallies by the BBC suggest the following turnouts in the Westminster constituencies: Lagan Valley 38.86 per cent; South Belfast 42.1 per cent; East Belfast 38.82 per cent; North Belfast 40.98 per cent; West Belfast 46.6 per cent; South Down 44.97 per cent; North Down 34.48 per cent; Mid Ulster 52.83 per cent; Newry and Armagh 43.7 per cent; East Antrim 34.53 per cent; South Antrim 38.03 per cent; and Strangford 34.24 per cent.
Votes were being verified last night at the count centre in the King’s Hall in Belfast but will not be counted until Monday morning.