NI Election 2022: Nichola Mallon misses out on re-election
Last updated 7th May 2022
Former Stormont minister Nichola Mallon became one of the highest-profile casualties of the Assembly Elections after losing her seat in North Belfast.
The outgoing Infrastructure Minister lost out to the Alliance Party's Nuala McAllister.
Meanwhile, Alliance "made history" in South Down by winning its first seat in the constituency, as the Sinn Fein MLAs used their acceptance speeches to put pressure on the DUP to form an Executive.
In what was representative of the wider election trend across the Stormont elections, Sinn Fein's two candidates were elected on the first count, and Alliance won a seat in what was an SDLP heartland.
Incumbent Sinead Ennis won 14,381 first preference votes, while her running mate Cathy Mason gathered 9,963.
Ms Ennis said in her acceptance speech on Saturday that voters in South Down wanted change.
"People want action to tackle the real issues that workers and families are dealing with, and they cannot and will not be held to ransom by any party refusing to go back into the Executive because they don't like the outcome of the democratic process."
Here, the unionist seat grabbed headlines in the run up to the election, after outgoing agriculture minister Edwin Poots failed in his attempt to win the DUP's nomination and DUP officials quit in the final weeks before polling day, backing the TUV candidate instead.
In the end, the DUP's Diane Forsythe took Jim Wells' vacated seat off the back of unionist transfers in count six.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Forsythe said the election campaign had been "challenging" but that she was proud of what had been achieved.
"We united unionism and delivered a really positive result here in South Down, so I'm really pleased.
"We're a minority in South Down in unionism, and we just really need to stick together."
Patrick Brown of Alliance was elected after the fifth count, winning Alliance's first seat in the constituency, at the expense of a second SDLP seat.
Incumbent Colin McGrath took the final seat, with his running mate Karen McKevitt left as the runner up. Apart from Foyle, this had been the only constituency where the SDLP held more than one seat.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Brown said: "Alliance has made history today in South Down.
"Securing Alliance as the third biggest party in the constituency is a monumental shift from the 500 or so votes we used to get when I first joined the party and I think it's a reflection of a changing Northern Ireland.
"One that is rejecting tribal and aggressive politics in rising numbers and sending a strong mandate for politics dedicated to building a shared future, fixing our flawed public services, moving towards a fairer economy and tackling the climate crisis.
""Let's get to work."