04/03/2017 BBC Newsline

The world number one initially struggled

The Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams says the Assembly election has

demolished the notion of a permanent unionist majority.

His party came within a seat of overturning a ten-seat DUP majority.

Senior DUP members have spoken out in defence of the party

Let's have a look at how the parties finished up.

The DUP remained the biggest party, but only just.

Sinn Fein finished in second place with 27 seats after seeing

their share of the vote surge by almost four percent.

The SDLP become the third largest party in the

The Ulster Unionists lost six of their MLAs and finished on ten,

prompting party leader Mike Nesbitt to announce his resignation.

The Alliance Party managed to hold on to their eight seats

despite the overall reduction to 90 seats in the Assembly.

The Green Party too held their position with two seats,

Clare Bailey taking the final seat in south Belfast in the early

People Before Profit went down to one seat

after Eamon McCann lost out in Foyle.

TUV leader Jim Allister retained his seat in North Antrim.

And the former Justice Minister Claire Sugden was returned

as an independent in East Londonderry.

Our political correspondent Gareth Gordon reports on what's been

He headlines told the story and the tremors will be felt some time to

come. The smiles on the face of Sinn Fein leaders said much. History has

been made. Stormont remains a unionist majority. The election

yesterday was in many ways a watershed election. We are starting

the process of reflecting what it all means. But clearly, the unionist

majority in the Assembly has been ended and the notion of a permanent

or a perpetual unionist majority has been demolished. Arlene Foster's DUP

went into this election with a ten seat lead, even taking a kind of

inevitable drop because of the reduction in MLAs, this was a bad

result for a party leader. Is her leadership in jeopardy? Obviously,

Foster and her party wants to have a look at their performance and wonder

what we could have done to avoid it. They will not pretend it simply

didn't happen, but what we have to do is make sure we do not have a

major reaction or even a knee jerk reaction determined by people who

are not on the same side as we are. It is a question which will not go

away. Does Arlene Foster enjoyed your full confidence to like? Yes.

She left her accounts last night refusing to speak to the BBC. She

was asked about her position. The opposition is not in question as far

as you're concerned? No, it is not. So for now, Mike Nesbitt is the only

leader to pay the price for a disappointing election results.

Sunday, Northern Ireland will vote as a normal democracy. We will vote

in a post-sectarian election, but it is clear it will not happen in the

duration of my political life. One possible successor, Steve Aiken told

the BBC today that he will spend the weekend reflecting on a raft of

issues, particularly what is best for the future of Northern Ireland.

Pointedly, he did not rule himself out. What's next to the Storm Doris

is another Mac to. The Secretary of State spend the day contact the

parties. Everyone now has shared responsibility to engage intensively

in the short stays available to others to establish a strong and

stable administration. On the streets, the postmortem has begun.

Adam Finn unionist people voted that well, because they have no

confidence in the leadership. The Republicans are gaining force. There

has been a bit of a sea change and it is welcome. People are thinking

about when they are voting. It is interesting and different, but hard

to restart Government again. We will soon find out if she is right.

A man's been treated in hospital after he was

It happened in Skegoniel Avenue in the early hours of this morning.

Three men in their 20s have been arrested.

Now, let's get a look at the weather forecast,

It has been quite showery in places today. Those showers will continue

this evening, although today, the winds shifted from the south-west

and they will bring that showery rain northwards through the night.

Eventually it will move away and we will be left with a dry slot.

Temperatures 3-4d. 1-2d in a few rural spots. Tomorrow, it looks a

dryer day for many. Bright spells developing, but is to begin with,

the cloud will fill in and there will be showers in the south and

even snow over the moors. Wetter across the Republic of Ireland. The

rain extends into northern England, Wales and across the Midlands

towards the east. Snow over the hills as well. In the south-west,

brighter. Temperatures in double figures. Bright for much of

Scotland, but eight few showers in the West and the far north-east. For

Northern Ireland in the afternoon, eight few showers, but many avoiding

them. Highs of around 8 degrees. It looks like a mainly dry start to the

week. High-pressure moves in on Monday, but towards the middle of

the week, the isobars are packing in so it will get wetter on Tuesday and

blustery showers on Wednesday.