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10:30pm on BBC One and now we go back to the special election | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
programme, but from me, by bye. Hello and welcome to the Titanic | :00:00. | :00:30. | |
Exhibition Centre, location of the count for the Belfast constituencies | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
and coverage of the 2017 Assembly election. This evening we will bring | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
you the big results, some already are in, the immolation of the | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
elimination of Alex Attwood, Danny Kennedy and Jonathan Bell, some of | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
the big surprises. As the party leaders are concerned, Michelle | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
O'Neill secured victory and Arlene Foster was elected within the last | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
hour. Earlier, the Alliance leader Naomi Long retained receipt in East | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
Belfast. The real drama might be just starting over the next few | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
hours, we will get a better idea of the party strengths, where the | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
transfers are going and the names of the big winners and losers. We will | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
hear from Mark and his guests in a moment, but first, reporters are not | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
the count centres, starting with Julian Fowler in Omagh. We are | :01:24. | :01:30. | |
waiting for the results of the final stage in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, the | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
transfer of the SDLP's Richie McPhillips' votes at the big story | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
is Arlene Foster topping the poll, no real surprise but she did not | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
reach the quarter on first preference, just around 232 short. | :01:44. | :01:52. | |
She received transfers in the second stage and was elected. We have asked | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
Arlene Foster for an interview but she says she will not be speaking to | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
the BBC and has spent much of the day here away from the media inside | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
the conference room or in the count centre behind me. We have not heard | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
any reaction from the DUP leader and we will wait to see if she decides | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
to speak to us later this evening. The final stage is crucial here | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
because depending on where the SDLP transfers go, that will depend on | :02:22. | :02:30. | |
who wins the final seat. So far, the Ulster Unionist Rosemary Barton has | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
done very well on transfers and could secure that seat ahead of Sean | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
Lynch from Sinn Fein, the outgoing MLA. He has been lagging behind his | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
colleagues, Michelle Gildernew and Jemma Dolan. He is set to miss out. | :02:43. | :02:50. | |
Maurice Morrow of the DUP should also retain his seat. In West | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
Tyrone, things are going more slowly, the results earlier on, | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
Barry McElduff for Sinn Fein and Michaella Boyle elected along with | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
Thomas Buchanan for the DUP, Sinn Fein pulling strongly in West Tyrone | :03:05. | :03:10. | |
on a turnout of 69%. They received over 21,000 votes. This is the | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
situation in Omagh, we can cross to Foyle and Keiron Tourish. The | :03:17. | :03:24. | |
current continues at the Foyle Arena for East Londonderry and the Foyle | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
constituency. What has been the story of the day has been the strong | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
performance of Sinn Fein and for the first time ever we have outpolled | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
the SDLP on first preference votes and who would have thought that in a | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
place that was once the heartland of John Hume, the former SDLP leader? | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
Sinn Fein have retained both seats and they say that has vindicated the | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
position of Martin McGuinness and a stance he took to collapse the | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
Assembly and for the SDLP, Colum Eastwood has been elected in the | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
last hour and he will be expected to be followed shortly by Mark H | :04:00. | :04:07. | |
Durkan. The losers? He has all but conceded defeat, but Eamonn McCann | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
will have one of the shortest medical careers on record, seven | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
months, he will lose his seat following a dramatic turnaround and | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
the DUP sitting MLA Gary Middleton is expected to pick up the last | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
seat. In East Londonderry, Sinn Fein are pulling well and they might well | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
take another seat, the DUP could be down by one seat and you have to add | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
that it is all to play for and early days. Who could be the loser? It | :04:38. | :04:44. | |
could be John Dallat, the SDLP veteran making a political comeback, | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
he could lose out in East Londonderry but the outgoing Justice | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
Minister Claire Sugden says she is quietly confident she will do well | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
and could retain her seat. David Maxwell joins us in Belfast. | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
The biggest story this afternoon so far has been Alex Attwood in West | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
Belfast losing the seat for the SDLP. He held on last time by the | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
skin of his teeth but not this time and we don't need a crystal ball to | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
know what the results will be in West Belfast, four Sinn Fein seats | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
very likely and Gerry Carroll, he has been returned. In North Belfast, | :05:24. | :05:31. | |
no one has been returned so far, the only Belfast constituency not to | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
declare for anyone, Jerry Kelly was returned last time in the first | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
round but no one so far and stop we expect him to get elected and Sinn | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
Fein are confident that Caral Ni Chuillin will follow him. Nichola | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
Mallon not to be rolled out, and if there were to be three nationalist | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
seats in North Belfast, remember, there are three DUP seats at the | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
moment, that but knock out a DUP representative and some say Nelson | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
McCausland is talking like he has already lost. That would be | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
significant for the DUP and in East Belfast... The DUP, everyone we | :06:07. | :06:13. | |
speak to say they expect to lose a seat and that will be twain Robin | :06:14. | :06:19. | |
Newton, the speaker in the last December, and David Douglas, who | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
replaces his father, Sammy. It is likely that David Douglas will be | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
more transfer friendly when it comes to transfers of John Kyle, the DUP | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
representative, when he is eliminated and and south Belfast, | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
that is a rainbow constituency. Last time it had five parties | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
represented. Mairtin O'Muilleoir, the only candidate elected so far | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
for Sinn Fein. We expect the SDLP and Alliance to follow him, given | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
the numbers at the moment. The race for the last two seeds are between | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
both DUP representatives and Clare Bailey of the Green Party. We wait | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
to see what that will be but there is potential in Belfast and I stress | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
only a potential that three out of the four seats to go could be DUP. | :07:07. | :07:14. | |
That would be significant indeed. Stephen Walker is in Bangor. | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
It has been a very good day for the DUP in North Down and the Strangford | :07:20. | :07:27. | |
seats in North Down, taking two seats and in Strangford it looks | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
like they are on course take three. They moved Peter Weir from North | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
Down into Strangford and they faced a threat from Jonathan Bell but that | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
never materialised so it looks like the DUP will take three seats in | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
Strangford. There is a tussle for the final seat with Philip were, | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
Philip Smith, rather, from the Ulster Unionists but it looks like | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
the DUP will get that. Strong showing from the Alliance and the | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
Greens but disappointing for the UUP, it is not applicable get the | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
second seat in Strangford, putting further pressure on Mike Nesbitt, | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
the leader. Thank you. Welcome back to our studio in broadcasting house | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
in Belfast for continuing coverage of the results for the 2017 Assembly | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
elections. It does not seem so long since we were here not so long ago, | :08:19. | :08:26. | |
last May, ten months ago, having not hugely dissimilar conversations in | :08:27. | :08:29. | |
Somerset 's -- respects but in another respect a lot has changed. | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
Some fresh faces on the panel. Fionnuala O'Connor, a regular on the | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
airwaves. Alex Kane, of course, freshfaced! And bearded! Underneath! | :08:42. | :08:52. | |
The former Sinn Fein MLA has joined us and Stephen Grimason, who was | :08:53. | :08:59. | |
with us earlier, the former head of communications for the Executive and | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
former Political Editor for BBC Northern Ireland so no stranger to | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
this setup. We can dive in. We have not heard from vanilla and Alex. Let | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
us hear from them. We have had a very good overview from the | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
colleagues on Newsline with Donna Trainer and colleagues out and about | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
at the various count centres. Is your assessment, seven hours into | :09:22. | :09:32. | |
the current? -- into the current? Other people have said this but | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
Arlene Foster has done an amazing double, she has brought out the Sinn | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
Fein vote to the maximum or certainly bigger than it has been | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
and she has brought out her own foot so this is a double first, Sinn Fein | :09:47. | :09:55. | |
should invite to the next are-! She will not thank you for saying that! | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
They could do it! On the other side of the fence, the other two parties | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
in contention, the Ulster Unionists and SDLP, pretty shaky, especially | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
for Mike Nesbitt, something you could see coming because he did that | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
crazy thing, he appealed to the people over the head of his party. | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
He did not discuss to any good purpose his idea of giving his first | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
preference or second preference to the SDLP and I think we have to | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
suppose he tried the site inside the party and did not go down very well | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
but it was a very unpolitical thing to do and he must be lamenting that. | :10:39. | :10:45. | |
Will he pay a price for that within his party? Newton Emerson said he | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
made the mess calculations of going into opposition? There is no place | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
called opposition, somebody famously said, but he moved into opposition | :10:57. | :11:03. | |
as the Leader of the Opposition, self-styled, and then those comments | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
about transferring to the SDLP in East Belfast. Has that cost him? | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
Living in the opposition was the right thing to do. But he would have | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
expected five years for both parties to get their act together for | :11:19. | :11:21. | |
movement and something resembling coherence to emerge and to present | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
themselves as a credible alternative to Sinn Fein and the DUP but as we | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
know, this was nothing to do with politics, this was orange and Green | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
yet again and Arlene Foster pulled it off, no matter what you say about | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
the DUP or the circumstances of this election, she delivered her vote and | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
that is all that matters. Mike Nesbitt did not but I think his | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
resignation cannot be far away. We will see. Catriona Ruane, looking at | :11:51. | :11:57. | |
pictures from the count centre and your colleagues holding up four | :11:58. | :12:04. | |
fingers, four MLAs returned. Fra McCann and Pat Sheehan, strife. -- | :12:05. | :12:14. | |
home and dry. It is remarkable vote management. It is difficult to get | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
three out of five and I know that from the Newry and Armagh and Mid | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
Ulster areas but four out of five? Remarkable. And that is the | :12:25. | :12:30. | |
crocodile! The crocodile featured in the last few days. Crocodile voting! | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
Is that a crocodile or an alligator? What is the difference? You tell me! | :12:38. | :12:45. | |
It is interesting, passing the mantle to the next generation and | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
Orlaithi Flynn topping the poll and we're not into topping the polls but | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
I think it is interesting that we are passing the mantle and that is | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
what needs to happen. Stephen, what do you make of where we are? Quite | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
an achievement for Sinn Fein MLAs, four out of five. And knocking Alex | :13:07. | :13:14. | |
Attwood out at the same time. The Ulster Unionists scenario, Mike | :13:15. | :13:21. | |
Nesbitt has not spoken yet. If you suggest over the head of your party | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
and the UUP is largely unreadable anyway but if you do that and the | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
broader electorate will have picked this up, who are the other big | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
winners? The Alliance Party. People said, think about transferring, let | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
us go the whole hog and vote for Alliance. The debate that he began | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
went in that direction and took even more away from him. Cutting the feet | :13:49. | :13:56. | |
from under him. Just a quick word. I was on the committee of the | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
Executive and I think it was a mistake, I will disagree, by the UUP | :14:01. | :14:08. | |
and SDLP to go into opposition because we are power-sharing... | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
Stormont was power-sharing, North and South. Perfectly entitled to | :14:13. | :14:19. | |
make that decision. I am not arguing that, parties are entitled to that | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
but I think there was a much stronger power-sharing when | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
everybody was in it and it was better for the SDLP and UUP because | :14:29. | :14:34. | |
they were part of this. They did not think they had any part in this. The | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
problem was not the power, they had difficulty resigning to the fact | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
they were the smaller parties. They felt they were being ignored, there | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
were secret meetings not involving them and they were not included and | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
they felt excluded. Danny Kennedy said, already being the opposition. | :14:54. | :15:02. | |
Let us develop this through the evening. Still some interesting | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
things happening. Conor Macauley is at Banbridge leisure centre. The | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
Upper Bann count and Newry and Armagh. What is the latest? Newry | :15:14. | :15:20. | |
and Armagh has wrapped up for the day, the seats are filled, three | :15:21. | :15:29. | |
Sinn Fein, one SDLP and one DUP, Justin McNulty for the SDLP and | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
William Irwin for the DUP but the big story here was the loss of the | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
seat by Danny Kennedy of the UUP, a seat that he has held since 1998 and | :15:42. | :15:47. | |
he said the increased turnout in this constituency had essentially | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
washed away the second unionist seat. Upper Bann, shaping up for an | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
interesting battle, still going on this evenly, Carla Lockhart elected | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
for the DUP and we expect confirmation that she will be joined | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
by Jonathan Buckley and John O'Dowd is safe for Sinn Fein and Doug | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
Beattie is pulling ahead of Jo-Anne Dobson for the UUP and she could | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
turn out to be the casualty for the UUP in this constituency, leaving | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
Dolores Kelly and Nuala Toman I'm Sinn Fein writing for the last seat. | :16:22. | :16:29. | |
Dolores Kelly had good news from the Alliance transfers, she had about | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
1200 of those, and she says there is nothing left to come but unionist | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
transfers and she is ahead of Nuala Toman White 264 and she thinks that | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
the transfers, she could stay ahead of Nuala Toman, gifting her the | :16:44. | :16:45. | |
final seat. Here it's all gone a bit quiet here, | :16:46. | :16:57. | |
there's not much happening at the moment. Some exclusions being | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
counted. It's a strongly republican area and Sinn Fein feel they kept | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
their three MLAs, their existing MLAs, including Michelle O'Neill and | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
it appears from some Sinn Fein commentators that the fact of | :17:10. | :17:11. | |
Michelle O'Neill having a much higher profile now in Stormont seems | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
to have upped the ante here and brought in more votes to Sinn Fein. | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
Also early election of the sitting DUP MLA, Keith Buchanan. If you can | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
count that makes four, that means there is one left, one seat left to | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
fight for. That seems to be between Patsy McGlone of the SDLP and the | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
Ulster Unionist Sandra Overend, they're in contention for that seat. | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
We are hearing, although nothing confirmed yet, we are hearing Patsy | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
McGlone is safe for that seat. In North Antrim, after ten hours nobody | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
elected yet. Previously three DUP, one TUV and one Ulster un-Eyes party | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
and one Sinn Fein. The only person saying anything much is the Sinn | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
Fein candidate Philip McGuigan who has been celebrating on social media | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
even though it's not decided yet. We are hearing three DUP candidates are | :18:02. | :18:04. | |
hopeful of keeping their seats but nobody is saying that's going to | :18:05. | :18:07. | |
happen and in fact we are thinking that the two people left in | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
contention who are in doubt are Philip Logan of the DUP and Robin | :18:12. | :18:18. | |
Swann of the UUP and we think Robin Swann is closer to that quota. He | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
may well get in first. Over to Julian O'Neill in Lisburn. | :18:24. | :18:32. | |
Jim Wells I believe is about to be deemed elected in South Down. This | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
is his 17th election campaign and he will be the father of the House in | :18:37. | :18:42. | |
the next Assembly. Already past the post in that South Down constituency | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
were Sinead Elis who topped the poll for Sinn Fein followed by kriz | :18:48. | :18:54. | |
Hazzard -- Chris. Also past the post and deemed elected Sinead Bradley of | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
the SDLP. Now a bittersweet day for her, retaking her seat on the day | :19:00. | :19:03. | |
she attended her father's funeral. I haven't seen her at the count centre | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
and I believe she may not be coming here. One seat left to fight for in | :19:08. | :19:19. | |
South Down between Colin McGrath and Patrick Brown. Harold McKee of the | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
Ulster Unionists has been eliminated. He held the 5th - sorry | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
the 6th seat at the last election, but he loses out in that | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
constituency. Things running a lot slower in Lagan valley which is also | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
being counted here at Lisburn. One candidate so far elected, Paul Givan | :19:39. | :19:41. | |
of the DUP who for the second election in a row has topped the | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
poll. I expect Edwin Poots, his running mate, to also be elected. | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
Trevor Lunn has polled well for Alliance, almost doubling his vote. | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
He too is likely to be elected. The final seat, I should say Robbie | :19:58. | :20:00. | |
Butler has polled well and is likely to get in, that leaves a 5th and | :20:01. | :20:08. | |
final seat up for grabs between two outgoing MLAs, Brenda Hale of the | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
DUP and Jenny Palmer of the Ulster Unionists. The DUP were hopeful at | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
the start of this day they would hold their three MLAs in this | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
constituency. That doubt has crept in, they're not now so confident and | :20:22. | :20:24. | |
I am even hearing from the SDLP that they feel they may be in with a | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
shout on that seat based on transfers but in all likelihood it | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
will be a run-off with Brenda Hale and Jenny Palmer. Over to | :20:36. | :20:42. | |
Newtownabbey and Ita. Here there is a bit of a teatime lull. I have | :20:43. | :20:50. | |
spoken to people off for a spot of lasagne. First to to South Antrim | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
and two people elected here, the first person to be elected was | :20:56. | :21:07. | |
Declan Kearney. Steve Aiken. We are at the next stage now and the | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
elimination of the SDLP's Roisin Lynch. Those transfers are going to | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
be distributed. David Ford says that he is feeling optimistic that he | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
will be next in line for a seat. There is no DUP MLAs elected here so | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
far. But they are fighting for - three candidates and they're | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
fighting for two seats, Paul Girvan, Pam Cameron and Trevor Clarke. There | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
is a bit of nervous energy amongst that group of DUP candidates. In | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
East Antrim we already have four seats filled. We just heard that the | :21:42. | :21:50. | |
DUP's Gordon Lyons has been elected. Earlier his colleague David Hilditch | :21:51. | :21:57. | |
was the first elected here. Next the Alliance's Stewart Dickson and Roy | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
Beggs. One seat left and Sinn Fein's Oliver McMullan is still there now. | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
He is vulnerable and only got eight transfers in the last round. That | :22:08. | :22:20. | |
remaining seat could be the Ulster Unionists' Stewart. -- John Stewart. | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
The numbers make for interesting reading. When you look at the growth | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
in the DUP vote, it's interesting on last May, 23,000 up. Sinn Fein vote | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
up 57,000. Yes, and the really interesting | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
figure is the difference between in the popular vote, between the DUP | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
total, they topped the popular vote, but Sinn Fein are just under 12 o 00 | :22:42. | :22:49. | |
votes behind them now -- 1200. As Monty Python used to say that's a | :22:50. | :22:57. | |
wafe refreshings thin majority. Even they didn't think it would be that | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
close. As I suggested earlier if you draw a | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
line down the middle of Northern Ireland you have a differentential | :23:07. | :23:09. | |
turnout west and east of the Bann. It takes fewer unionists to elected | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
an MLA than nationalists to put it crudely. Kwha do you make of that, | :23:15. | :23:21. | |
interesting numbers That's psychologically an important thing | :23:22. | :23:28. | |
and it must factor - it must be a factor in Arlene Foster's | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
psychology. I heard somebody saying, was it David McIlveen, again the | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
Thorne in the flesh who has more play than he probably deserves and | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
clearly has a firm out of spite and mallise in him from his experiences | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
in May. I think it was him who said there was a comfortable gap between | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
the parties the last time. This is nothing like a comfortable gap. I | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
suspect he would dispute the idea of malice. Of course he would. Maybe | :23:56. | :24:02. | |
malicious... It's fair to suggest that he has an axe to grind. I never | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
thought I would feel sympathy for Arlene Foster, I must say but... Do | :24:08. | :24:16. | |
you not? No, it past! Nicholas Whyte was saying this earlier, but for the | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
first time unionists will not have an overall majority in terms of | :24:21. | :24:24. | |
seats or possibly will not have an overall majority in terms of seats | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
in the Assembly. They would still be the single biggest designation, but | :24:31. | :24:32. | |
they wouldn't necessarily have a majority. If they come in at 43, 44 | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
seats, out of 90, that's less than half. That's going to be a | :24:39. | :24:41. | |
difficulty and I was writing about that at the beginning of the | :24:42. | :24:43. | |
campaign. Why is it a difficulty? It's psychological. What's going to | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
happen, if you get a situation... You are shaking your head, does it | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
matter? Why it will make a difference. For unionists majority | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
matters to unionism, it's a psychological thing. For the first | :24:58. | :25:00. | |
time, whether it's a Stormont parliament or an Assembly in | :25:01. | :25:03. | |
Northern Ireland, if someone can get up and say, whether it's someone | :25:04. | :25:06. | |
from Sinn Fein or Alliance or the SDLP to say to - assuming it's | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
Arlene Foster, you do not speak for, this House does not represent a | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
unionist majority any more, that's psychologically damaging. She will | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
feel vulnerable. Can you understand that, the psychology of that I can | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
understand it but as a society we need to stop thinking in terms of | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
majority. We need to be thinking in terms of celebrating diversity. We | :25:32. | :25:38. | |
need to be thinking of making this a place for everyone. I think - I do | :25:39. | :25:45. | |
understand it, but I still - I haven't seen the right words for it, | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
we have to change that way. I am pretty sure if that balance Stephen | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
was talking about was in favour of Sinn Fein, if Sinn Fein was the | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
largest party in Northern Ireland they might not be blatantly saying | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
look at us, but they would have let the message go out to the core, we | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
are now the largest party, we are making progress. It's in their | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
psychology, as well. I am going to disagree with you. I know you are. | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
Not in the same way. When we were discussing it in the previous | :26:18. | :26:19. | |
election about first and Deputy First Minister, I mean, first and | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
Deputy First Minister have - we have said it, have the exact same powers. | :26:25. | :26:31. | |
What Martin McGuinness said was let's have joint ministers. If Sinn | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
Fein were to be the biggest party, let's have joint ministers. I think | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
we need to stop thinking like that. We need to be thinking of our LGBT | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
and thinking of women and ethnic minorities. We need to be working | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
together to build a better island. In my case a better island. In the | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
case of unionism as they would see it a better place for us all to | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
live. There are bound to be people in Connolly House saying we can kick | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
on from this, we are really close now. Is that likely to be spooking | :27:05. | :27:08. | |
some unionists? More than some. Interesting point, thank you very | :27:09. | :27:11. | |
much. We will come back to this in due | :27:12. | :27:16. | |
course. Before teatime we heard from Alex Attwood of the SDLP who lost | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
out in West Belfast, he was an MLA since 1998 there. A short time ago | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
he spoke to people gathered at the Titanic count centre. People ask me | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
how do I feel, that's not so important. What is important to me | :27:33. | :27:37. | |
is that I do feel that I have let down the SDLP. And I do feel that I | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
have let down the people of West Belfast. That is something that I | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
will carry into the future for a very long period of time. But I am | :27:46. | :27:53. | |
reassured that the new generation of SDLP coming through in West Belfast | :27:54. | :27:57. | |
will take the party to places and to success that has been beyond my | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
grasp in recent times. I have confidence in them and I would ask | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
people who support the SDLP in West Belfast to have confidence in them | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
too. Alex Attwood speaking at the count centre in Belfast. Obviously | :28:14. | :28:17. | |
very disappointed. Let's talk to his party leader Colum Eastwood, leader | :28:18. | :28:21. | |
of the SDLP who joins us from his home count in Derry. Evening to you. | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
Thank you for joining us. How do you feel about Alex Attwood's career | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
being brought to a juddering halt this afternoon? Well, it's a huge | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
loss for us and of course Alex hasn't let us down. He has done | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
anything but let the people of this country down over his many decades | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
of service. Because of Alex Attwood we have a new beginning to policing, | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
he played a huge role in the peace process and our negotiations so we | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
are very proud of the work that Alex has done as a representative of the | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
SDLP and a representative of West Belfast over many years. We will | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
miss him very, very sorely. Of course, it was a very difficult ask, | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
we duesing from six to five seaters, he won the 6th seat just about a few | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
months ago. The 5th seat was just I think a bit of a stretch for us and | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
we always knew he would be under pressure in West Belfast and Alex | :29:16. | :29:20. | |
did put a trojan effort to try to retain the seat, unfortunately the | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
wins were against him. It's been a bad day so Forrest -- so far for the | :29:25. | :29:29. | |
SDLP, not just in West Belfast but elsewhere too. Your overall | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
performance, last May it was the worst SDLP performance ever. Today, | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
it's worse again. Your vote is down I think overall... Is it? It is, | :29:38. | :29:45. | |
yes. It is. Your vote is down by and share is down by 0. 1%. You are | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
going - you have lost one seat. Are you going to make ten seats, can you | :29:51. | :29:56. | |
make ten seats? How bad is it in your estimatation? Well, of course I | :29:57. | :30:00. | |
don't see it in the same way that you do. 0. 1% is hardly anything at | :30:01. | :30:07. | |
all. For the SDLP to retain its vote share across the north in such a | :30:08. | :30:10. | |
difficult and poisonous situation that we have had, the political | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
context has been horrible for parties of the middle. Of course | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
this was an election pitched as a battle between Sinn Fein and the DUP | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
and we were always going to find it difficult. Of course, ten seats will | :30:23. | :30:25. | |
be proportional to what we have right now given the fact we are | :30:26. | :30:28. | |
reducing the number of seats in the Assembly. I don't think we are far | :30:29. | :30:34. | |
away from ten seats and people like Dolores Kelly are doing well to hang | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
in there and she will take a seat I think at the expense of Sinn Fein in | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
Upper Bann. What about the decision that you made to go into opposition | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
with Mike Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist party. We heard from some | :30:48. | :30:51. | |
commentators around the table here that may well have cost both your | :30:52. | :30:54. | |
parties, the centre ground, if you like, or a major part of the centre | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
ground, real support in this election, do you think now with the | :31:00. | :31:04. | |
benefit of hindsight it was a miscalculation? No, I think that's | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
utter nonsense, the idea this was an election about the Government versus | :31:10. | :31:12. | |
opposition, as much as some of us tried to make it that and move | :31:13. | :31:16. | |
politics on to that ground, that's not what this election was about, it | :31:17. | :31:19. | |
was about old battles that have come to the fore again. The people saying | :31:20. | :31:25. | |
that we moved into the opposition was a strategic mistake were saying | :31:26. | :31:28. | |
it was a good idea a few months ago, so I don't buy that. That's not what | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
this election was about. Just to be clear, I have to be fair to you, | :31:33. | :31:36. | |
your share of the overall vote is down 0. 1%. You may well be down | :31:37. | :31:42. | |
overall in terms of seats. Your vote is up because turnout is up and | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
everybody's - all the main parties have an increased vote. So the vote | :31:47. | :31:49. | |
has gone up by a few thousand. I accept that. But the share... I am | :31:50. | :31:56. | |
glad you say that, Mark. I thought that our vote was up. It is up but | :31:57. | :32:04. | |
in percentage terms it's down. By 0. 1% which I don't think anybody could | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
hold against us in a poisonous political atmosphere which was an | :32:10. | :32:11. | |
election between the DUP and Sinn Fein. The rest of us tried to find | :32:12. | :32:15. | |
some space to make a positive case. I think we did well to retain that | :32:16. | :32:23. | |
percentage share and we will end up in and around prorata what we had. I | :32:24. | :32:27. | |
think it's a good day for an SDLP in a difficult and poisonous | :32:28. | :32:28. | |
atmosphere. Thank you very much. We will have further conversations | :32:29. | :32:42. | |
in the next few days. Jo Whiley Dobson for the Ulster Unionists has | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
been eliminated in her caught so she has gone. That is Upper Bann, | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
speculation that Doug Beattie could be under pressure, her running mate, | :32:54. | :32:58. | |
but he is hanging in. Jo-Anne Dobson has gone. That is significant. | :32:59. | :33:06. | |
Another bad bit of news for the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mike | :33:07. | :33:10. | |
Nesbitt. Mark Devenport is looking at the overall picture. Let us look | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
at the Assembly make up so far. Here we go. 42 of the 90 seats declared | :33:16. | :33:24. | |
and we can see Sinn Fein on 18, putting in a quick start to this | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
race. Any idea of what you might end up with? Between 26 and 28. | :33:30. | :33:37. | |
Depending on whether they can make gains in East Londonderry and the | :33:38. | :33:42. | |
second seat in north Belfast. The DUP trailing them on 13 what they | :33:43. | :33:50. | |
will make up that gap? At least, maximum of 29, the uncertainty is | :33:51. | :33:57. | |
whether they can hang onto the second seat in Fermanagh-South | :33:58. | :34:02. | |
Tyrone. Alliance Party, four, in third position. Can they hold on? | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
For it is not impossible, there is an outside chance in South Down and | :34:08. | :34:14. | |
North Belfast, outside chances but nonetheless they are there. And the | :34:15. | :34:20. | |
Ulster Unionists and SDLP, poor figures. Some of the faces joining | :34:21. | :34:25. | |
the Assembly. And some of those who will be lost. Jonathan Buckley and | :34:26. | :34:32. | |
Upper Bann taking over the seat vacated by Sidney Anderson. The DUP | :34:33. | :34:40. | |
consolidating their consolidation. Sinn Fein, Elisha McCallion, the | :34:41. | :34:47. | |
former Mayor of Derry, taking over from Martin McGuinness, and Sinead | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
Ennis, only beaten by her party leader. Most impressive performances | :34:51. | :34:59. | |
from both candidates, replacing long-standing local figures. Some of | :35:00. | :35:06. | |
those no longer with us. Gerry Mullan, he stood as an independent | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
in East Londonderry and he has done damage to the SDLP? It looks like | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
because of the confusion between the candidates the SDLP will lose that's | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
it. Jonathan Bell in Strangford, at the centre of the RHI storm, did not | :35:23. | :35:29. | |
do the DUP as much damage has had? Clearly not and did himself no | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
favours. Moving along. The SDLP, pretty bad for them, some veterans, | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
Alex Attwood and West Belfast and Richie McPhillips losing out? | :35:43. | :35:53. | |
Squeaking through last time. Alex Attwood is a significant loss. And a | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
bad day for the Ulster Unionists. Jo-Anne Dobson, that was a surprise | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
she did not do better than her running mate, Doug Beattie, and she | :36:04. | :36:08. | |
loses Danny -- joins Danny Kennedy and Harold McKee? And in the short | :36:09. | :36:15. | |
term, there are number of candidates has been reduced. Lots of human | :36:16. | :36:21. | |
drama. With all the comings and goings of the new | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
Thank you. We can talk to Jim Wells, the DUP candidate, successfully | :36:26. | :36:33. | |
returned in South Down. Thank you for joining us. Congratulations. | :36:34. | :36:41. | |
Thank you. Are you pleased you came in third place with 7800 first | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
preferences behind two Sinn Fein candidates? Pretty comfortable? Yes. | :36:49. | :36:56. | |
The vote was up 53% from last May, very comfortable. Up from 5000 to | :36:57. | :37:05. | |
7800, very credible performance and I want to thank my election agent | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
and my colleagues in the team. I want to pay tribute to Howard | :37:10. | :37:14. | |
McHugh, who did not make it. He will be missed in South Down. Sinead | :37:15. | :37:21. | |
Bradley successful for the SDLP and a very difficult day for Sinead, | :37:22. | :37:25. | |
returned today, the pleasure of getting back to Stormont with what | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
was her father's seat but she buried her father this morning? Yes, PJ | :37:31. | :37:37. | |
Bradley was one of the nicest men ever to represent South Down and his | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
passing is a tragedy and very difficult for Sinead because he was | :37:42. | :37:45. | |
ill for some time and she fought that campaign without going on so | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
well done to her in difficult times and commiserations to you and your | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
family. What do you make of the battle for the fifth seat? Between | :37:55. | :37:59. | |
Colin McGrath of the SDLP and Patrick Brown from Alliance, he is | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
trailing column by around 600 votes but we are looking at the | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
redistribution of the surpluses and there is every possibility, is | :38:10. | :38:12. | |
there, that they could go to Patrick Brown more than Colin McGrath? We | :38:13. | :38:18. | |
could have a new face returned for South Down? It would not be Howard | :38:19. | :38:28. | |
McHugh's surplus, it is mine, with 2500 votes. We did not want members | :38:29. | :38:34. | |
and supporters to transfer to the Alliance. I think that Colin | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
McGrath, the sitting MLA, has a good chance. He has a lead over Patrick | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
Brown and I would think he will get the that's it, two Sinn Fein and | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
SDLP and myself as the only unionist. I am just looking at the | :38:49. | :38:56. | |
numbers. There are so many columns and boxes and numbers, I miss read | :38:57. | :39:04. | |
that. Sinead Bradley got in ahead if you on the third stage. That would | :39:05. | :39:10. | |
mean Colin McGrath would be home and Patrick Brown not successful. Any | :39:11. | :39:17. | |
idea of the timescale? Pistil redistribution of the surplus from | :39:18. | :39:24. | |
Chris, about 600, that will favour Colin McGrath and my surplus is | :39:25. | :39:31. | |
around 2500, fairly neutral, so Colin would be the favourite, two | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
more accounts and Colin will probably be elected. We will see. | :39:36. | :39:43. | |
Good to talk to you. Thank you. We can talk to Patsy McGlone from the | :39:44. | :39:48. | |
SDLP, who joins us from his count in Mid Ulster. The seven Towers Leisure | :39:49. | :39:55. | |
Centre. Are you confident that you will hang onto your seat? I am | :39:56. | :40:03. | |
hopeful. We're at the fourth count for the smaller parties being | :40:04. | :40:06. | |
eliminated so there are transfers coming across so it seems hopeful | :40:07. | :40:12. | |
that I will be returned again. That would mean you are knocking out | :40:13. | :40:16. | |
Sandra Overend, who has served there for quite some time, as did her | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
father before her. More bad news for the Ulster Unionist Party. Yes, I do | :40:22. | :40:28. | |
not count my chickens before they hatch and that was the case, I would | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
feel for Sandra Overend, as I would for anyone who gets knocked out, who | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
has been there and served their community and has done well for | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
those communities. Unfortunate that somebody has to be the loser, we had | :40:43. | :40:48. | |
the reduction from six to only five seats but that is the inevitability | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
of it, five people have to get through and with 11 candidates, | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
there are six losers. Impressive performance by Sinn Fein, Michelle | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
O'Neill, the party leader, at Stormont, topping the poll. Bringing | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
both running mates with her in some style? They have done well here. I | :41:08. | :41:15. | |
have to say, I congratulated all the candidates elected so far but on the | :41:16. | :41:21. | |
political side, we had a huge fear factor in this election that turned | :41:22. | :41:26. | |
into a sectarian bunfight but the SDLP has put its vote up by 12,001st | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
preference votes 19 months ago which is good for us. However, this | :41:32. | :41:37. | |
election was not about RHI or anything else, we saw Arlene Foster | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
whipping up the fear and that was reciprocated by those who want to | :41:42. | :41:45. | |
give her a political bloody nose and that was the sum total of what | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
seemed to have happened. How do you feel about the broader message from | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
the electorate? Particularly towards the Ulster Unionist Party add your | :41:55. | :42:00. | |
own party, the SDLP? The decision to go into opposition in the middle of | :42:01. | :42:03. | |
last year, people this evening saying that could be judged to have | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
been a mistake? You have been rejected at the ballot box by the | :42:09. | :42:13. | |
electorate? It has been a mistake that added an extra 12,000 votes to | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
us in a period of nine months. I don't know if you can call that a | :42:19. | :42:27. | |
mistake! I would not call it that. The overall share is down and your | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
seat tally, the critical thing, is not as good as you would have hoped? | :42:33. | :42:39. | |
That depends. We will wait. Wait until the final count and we will | :42:40. | :42:43. | |
see, like last year, I heard the same refrain from your colleagues, | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
and it is looking good for us in Upper Bann with Dolores Kelly and | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
hopefully she will be back and we have a shout in Lagan Valley so wait | :42:53. | :42:59. | |
until we see the final result. I will emphasise, we have put our | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
first preference vote up by 12000 and that is no mean feat. Thank you | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
very much. Patsy McGlone from the Mid Ulster count in Ballymena. John | :43:10. | :43:16. | |
O'Dowd has been returned in Upper Bann. Last time around in May, he | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
had a fight for the final seat with an Grace Kelly and he managed to | :43:23. | :43:29. | |
that seat by 168 votes, and very tight squeeze and people had him | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
down and out. More comfortable today on the fifth stage. -- Dolores | :43:34. | :43:39. | |
Kelly. Carla Lockhart topping the poll, John O'Dowd, Jonathan Buckley | :43:40. | :43:45. | |
from the DUP and the battle for the fourth and fifth seats between Nuala | :43:46. | :43:49. | |
Toman of Sinn Fein, Doug Beattie of the Ulster Unionists and Jo-Anne | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
Dobson is out and Dolores Kelly, who retired last May after defeat but is | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
back in the frame. Interesting stuff. We have new faces, Nigel | :43:59. | :44:06. | |
Dodds and we can welcome me. And John McCallister, former Ulster | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
Unionist and former NI21 and former independent representative for South | :44:13. | :44:19. | |
Down. Such a build-up! South Down, we were talking to Jim Wells, how do | :44:20. | :44:23. | |
you see the numbers are stacking up? Do you think that it looks pretty | :44:24. | :44:32. | |
safe for Colin McGrath? Not pretty safe, Jim was talking about his | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
surplus and that is true. But the core of those votes will be the | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
elimination is from Howard McKee. You do not know where that could go. | :44:43. | :44:52. | |
It is still probably favouring Colin but this is a remarkable performance | :44:53. | :44:56. | |
by Patrick Brown in the Alliance Party. Ten years ago, when I was | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
elected to the Assembly, the Alliance vote was around 700 and | :45:02. | :45:10. | |
nine he was on 4501st preference, remarkable turnaround. Mike Nesbitt | :45:11. | :45:16. | |
confirmed returned in Strangford and Michelle McIlveen. Mike Nesbitt has | :45:17. | :45:19. | |
his seat. He beat you for the leadership of the party so you have | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
history with them, but the best of friends, there is no secret about | :45:26. | :45:31. | |
that. We are very close friends! I'm not saying you are sworn enemies! | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
How do you feel about his day-to-day? Not looking great for | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
the UUP? He is having an awful day but this is what I warned about for | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
a number of years, you have to decide what it is the party is | :45:48. | :45:55. | |
about. Unionist unity or opposition? I wanted, like Alex, in 2012, five | :45:56. | :46:02. | |
years ago, I wanted to take the party into opposition, I did not | :46:03. | :46:07. | |
want to bring down the institutions. Do we want to go in that direction? | :46:08. | :46:13. | |
And saying no to unionist unity. Mike Nesbitt wanted to go a | :46:14. | :46:17. | |
different way and what has not been clear over those years, and he is | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
paying the price, 2013 without deal in Mid Ulster and I resigned from | :46:22. | :46:27. | |
the UUP at that point but you have to decide what is your party is | :46:28. | :46:32. | |
about. And until they do that, and that is not entirely his fault, part | :46:33. | :46:36. | |
of that is the party has never decided what it wants to do. | :46:37. | :46:41. | |
Interesting. We will come back to that. Nigel Dodds, welcome. What are | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
your initial thoughts about your party's performance this time | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
around? Given all the predictions and commentary leading up to this | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
election it has been a remarkable performance, our vote has held up | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
extremely well and Arlene Foster and all of those around her deserve | :47:01. | :47:06. | |
enormous credit for the way in which she has withstood so much that has | :47:07. | :47:09. | |
been thrown at her and the way the party has come through. The vote is | :47:10. | :47:16. | |
down a little bit. But given the barrage of criticism and the | :47:17. | :47:21. | |
maelstrom in which people said we were caught up, it is remarkable. | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
What is coming out of this is very clear. There are none to parties, | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
Sinn Fein with a very strong mandate and the DUP with a very strong | :47:32. | :47:35. | |
mandate, slightly stronger, and what we need to do is work together to | :47:36. | :47:40. | |
move Northern Ireland forward. It is very clear that the people have | :47:41. | :47:45. | |
spoken. Yesterday, in the election. They made it very clear that in | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
terms of unionism and the DUP speaking for the unionist people and | :47:50. | :47:53. | |
they have made it clear in terms of the nationalist republican | :47:54. | :47:58. | |
community, but opposition, the SDLP decision and the rest of it is not | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
something they want to go forward with, they want to get moving | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
forward in terms of the executor. What we need to do in the coming | :48:07. | :48:10. | |
days is set down, work out how we can get this province bidding, get | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
the Assembly running, get the Executive back, I do not think the | :48:16. | :48:18. | |
people yesterday were voting in favour of opposition. The idea that | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
parties exist in order to go into opposition, and I have the greatest | :48:25. | :48:27. | |
respect for John and everything he has done in politics and he knows | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
that, but the idea that you go into politics offering people opposition, | :48:33. | :48:37. | |
you do not want to take power, you do not want responsibility, is | :48:38. | :48:38. | |
something I think is a mistake. I don't think anybody do that. | :48:39. | :48:46. | |
People knew when they were voting for the SDLP and the Ulster | :48:47. | :48:48. | |
Unionists that really effectively they were voting for people that | :48:49. | :48:52. | |
were going to be in opposition because no matter what people | :48:53. | :48:54. | |
were... They thought if enough people voted for them they would be | :48:55. | :48:57. | |
in Government and you would be in opposition. People knew as they | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
voted in this election that the idea that it was going to be an SDLP and | :49:03. | :49:06. | |
Ulster Unionist Government and that the DUP and Sinn Fein were going to | :49:07. | :49:09. | |
be - it was nonsense, people knew that. It goes back to this mixed | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
messages and the rest of it. We have a system in Northern Ireland of | :49:15. | :49:16. | |
mandatory Government and people have to make up their minds. If they're | :49:17. | :49:20. | |
going to play a role or opt out. Can I ask you for a response to | :49:21. | :49:24. | |
something that Fionnuala said earlier, which is Arlene Foster to | :49:25. | :49:27. | |
be congratulated on a fine performsance as far as the DUP is | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
concerned, but also deserves congratulations for mobilising the | :49:33. | :49:36. | |
Sinn Fein vote. Yes, it's a good soundbite. But the reality is that | :49:37. | :49:41. | |
nobody expected the DUP to do as well as we have done. Sinn Fein can | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
speak for themselves and will speak for themselves in terms of their | :49:47. | :49:55. | |
vote Maybe it galvanised votes. The same can be said the same as post | :49:56. | :50:03. | |
eulogis being murders... People notice what goes on in each side of | :50:04. | :50:06. | |
the community. Don't understatement how unionists feel when they see the | :50:07. | :50:11. | |
leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland eulogising murder. That has | :50:12. | :50:15. | |
an effect in the unionist community as well and galvanises people just | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
as people, the Ulster Unionist leader when he says transfer to | :50:20. | :50:23. | |
nationalists, you know, we don't want to increase or help other | :50:24. | :50:26. | |
unionists get elected, that's an effect within the unionist community | :50:27. | :50:29. | |
too. And that has to be borne in mind. I will come back to you again | :50:30. | :50:33. | |
shortly. I want to park that for a moment. I want to hear from Tara | :50:34. | :50:42. | |
again who has some guests at the Titanic Ex Centre in Belfast. | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
Yes, we may not be able to get an interview with Arlene Foster in the | :50:48. | :50:52. | |
BBC today but we do have pictures that Brian John Spencer has done for | :50:53. | :50:55. | |
us today, some of the cartoons he has been working on. | :50:56. | :51:01. | |
Do you think the one on the left with the rope saying that she may be | :51:02. | :51:05. | |
taken down, that's premature now, isn't it or out of date because she | :51:06. | :51:10. | |
will probably survive as leader? I think she will survive as leader. | :51:11. | :51:13. | |
The DUP have done just enough, they're ahead of Sinn Fein in the | :51:14. | :51:16. | |
popular vote. They're probably going to lead Sinn Fein in terms of the | :51:17. | :51:21. | |
number of Assembly seats. We are not going to have a rethink in terms of | :51:22. | :51:27. | |
party seats or block designations so she's probably done enough, she was | :51:28. | :51:30. | |
not the commanding figure in May 2016 but Arlene Foster will claim a | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
renewed mandate today. The story is of Sinn Fein's advances but Arlene | :51:35. | :51:38. | |
Foster has probably done enough to stay in place. Arlene Foster will | :51:39. | :51:42. | |
only step down on a voluntary basis and will not have Sinn Fein | :51:43. | :51:44. | |
effectively choosing the DUP leader. So it's as you were with all the | :51:45. | :51:48. | |
problems of course that brings in terms of forming a Government. Still | :51:49. | :51:52. | |
with nothing between Michelle O'Neill and Gavin Robinson earlier, | :51:53. | :51:56. | |
he carefully didn't rule out somebody else going in as First | :51:57. | :51:59. | |
Minister but he didn't rule it in either. He wasn't emphatic about it. | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
Sinn Fein have been less careful about, in terms of their blanket | :52:04. | :52:07. | |
refusal to countenance Arlene Foster. There is more wriggle room | :52:08. | :52:11. | |
on the other side. How will the DUP actually sell that? Because if | :52:12. | :52:14. | |
Arlene Foster was to step aside for any reason it would look like giving | :52:15. | :52:18. | |
in to Sinn Fein. So it's difficult to see how we get a compromise from | :52:19. | :52:22. | |
here. That's why I am pessimistic about the prospects of an Executive | :52:23. | :52:27. | |
formed over the next 6-9 months. All hopes are pinned on the RHI inquiry | :52:28. | :52:30. | |
which provides utter clarity and that we can move on from there. I am | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
not sure we will get that far. Chris, the pictures, I remember the | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
picture that Brian Spencer did last year, it was of an Iron Lady, echos | :52:41. | :52:44. | |
back to Margaret Thatcher and she is not in that position now. No, she's | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
not. Such a change. The reception that Arlene Foster got here last | :52:50. | :52:54. | |
year when she came in, this year it was Michelle O'Neill got that | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
reception. Very clearly the story of this election has been Sinn Fein's | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
stunning electoral success. Here in Belfast and West Belfast they've | :53:03. | :53:07. | |
taken four out of five seats. Very comfortably taken those seats with | :53:08. | :53:12. | |
over 61% of the vote. In North Belfast interestingly, that surge of | :53:13. | :53:14. | |
support for Sinn Fein has meant that we could be on the verge of for the | :53:15. | :53:18. | |
first time ever having more nationalists elected in a | :53:19. | :53:20. | |
constituency-wide election in North Belfast than unionists, which again | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
would be a remarkable change on how things have been nine months ago. A | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
big name potentially in trouble in North Belfast, Nelson McCausland. | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
Yes, a significant figure within the DUP, former culture Minister. And | :53:34. | :53:36. | |
really the mood music seems to be from the DUP that they think he has | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
lost. He is out yet on the numbers, but from the body language of the | :53:41. | :53:44. | |
DUP members it appears that they've lost a significant figure within the | :53:45. | :53:51. | |
party. That would leave the DUP and unionism within Belfast likely down | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
to just six seats out of 20 because they'll have lost a seat in East, | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
North and South Belfast. What do you see as the overall picture then, you | :54:00. | :54:03. | |
were saying earlier that there is a possibility that Sinn Fein and the | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
DUP could have the same number of seats of 28, but with some results | :54:08. | :54:10. | |
in the last half hour that's possibly not going to happen now. I | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
still expect the DUP to be around 29, 30, to still have a slight lead | :54:15. | :54:19. | |
over Sinn Fein. The other big question today is what happens to | :54:20. | :54:22. | |
the smaller parties within the unionist and nationalist blocks? | :54:23. | :54:25. | |
Mike Nesbitt said this felt different on the doorstep and yet | :54:26. | :54:30. | |
the UUP has failed to deliver. The SDLP have really failed to deliver. | :54:31. | :54:34. | |
I do wonder whether there is room for a smaller party within either | :54:35. | :54:38. | |
electoral block now. Frankly, if you are a strong unionist, you vote DUP. | :54:39. | :54:46. | |
If you are - what is the future of the UUP and SDLP? The idea of going | :54:47. | :54:51. | |
into opposition was not a bad one, Stormont needed an opposition but | :54:52. | :54:54. | |
it's not working on the doorstep. The only good election result the | :54:55. | :54:57. | |
UUP have had in the last few years is when they went into a | :54:58. | :55:04. | |
pan-unionist front at a Westminster election in 2015, everything else | :55:05. | :55:10. | |
has been, frankly, mediocre in terms of elections, they're going to have | :55:11. | :55:13. | |
to have a new strategy and maybe a new leader. Is there an obvious | :55:14. | :55:18. | |
successor, though, if he decides it's not worth carrying on? Not | :55:19. | :55:21. | |
really. Thank you very much. We will leave it there. More from you later. | :55:22. | :55:27. | |
Thank you very much, Tara. Let's cross over to North Antrim and | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
speak to the TUV leader Jim Allister who joins us from the Seven Towers | :55:33. | :55:36. | |
Leisure Centre. Evening to you, thank you very much for joining us. | :55:37. | :55:41. | |
I am looking at my computer here. I don't think anybody's formally been | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
returned at this stage A lot of eliminations, are you confidentable | :55:46. | :55:49. | |
you will hold on to your seat? Yes, I am within about 200 votes of the | :55:50. | :55:54. | |
quota so I think that's pretty clear what's going to happen. I think it's | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
going to end up one Sinn Fein seat, one TUV seat and one Ulster Unionist | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
seat and two DUP, which is a loss of a DUP seat. Will that be Philip | :56:04. | :56:10. | |
Logan who will lose that seat, the candidate who came through last May? | :56:11. | :56:13. | |
Yes, it certainly looks like that. I do have to say this, this is a poor | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
day for unionism. It's a day that need not have happened but for the | :56:19. | :56:23. | |
arrogance of MrsFoster it wouldn't have happened. It's a day when we | :56:24. | :56:27. | |
have seen Sinn Fein advances and probably arrived at the point | :56:28. | :56:32. | |
unnecessarily where unionism is no longer the majority control in the | :56:33. | :56:36. | |
Assembly and I think that does send a message to both the leaders of | :56:37. | :56:43. | |
unionism and the unionist party that given that Stormont will only | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
continue if the DUP now fill Sinn Fein's boots with endless | :56:49. | :56:52. | |
concessions and - they are insatable on that front, many unionists will | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
be asking themselves whether in these circumstances we really want | :56:57. | :56:59. | |
to keep Stormont and I think all unionists have to do some | :57:00. | :57:03. | |
heart-searching about whether or not that's the best way to protect the | :57:04. | :57:08. | |
union where we have an elevated and advanced Sinn Fein agenda which will | :57:09. | :57:13. | |
be so avarice in its demands of unionism and unionism if it wants to | :57:14. | :57:19. | |
keep Stormont is going to have to pay an incredible and repeated price | :57:20. | :57:22. | |
and I do question whether that is in the interests of unionism. Well, you | :57:23. | :57:27. | |
have questioned how Arlene Foster has handled the situation and she - | :57:28. | :57:31. | |
you say she bears some responsibility for what's happened | :57:32. | :57:34. | |
for Sinn Fein's advances. How could she have stopped that, how could she | :57:35. | :57:39. | |
have prevented Martin McGuinness's resignation, the only thing she | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
could do was step aside to stop that happening and if she had done that | :57:43. | :57:45. | |
you would have been the first person to say she was dancing to Sinn | :57:46. | :57:49. | |
Fein's tune? Of course - I would row it back much further than that. The | :57:50. | :57:55. | |
DUP by bringing Sinn Fein into Government created the crocodile | :57:56. | :57:57. | |
scenario and of course they've had to feed it ever since. And as that | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
crocodile has grown stronger and more avarice and demanding the daily | :58:04. | :58:10. | |
diet increases. This day was coming, it's come sooner than need be. | :58:11. | :58:14. | |
Because of the courtesy of the DUP advancing Sinn Fein in Government. | :58:15. | :58:18. | |
Of course, they are eager to do it again because we hear them talk | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
about wanting to get back into the Executive, they want power above all | :58:23. | :58:26. | |
else, but this is power at the cost of paying the Sinn Fein price and | :58:27. | :58:30. | |
it's clear that the Sinn Fein price is becoming increasingly and | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
unsustainably high, that's why I say unionism needs to consider if doing | :58:36. | :58:38. | |
that is any longer in their interests. OK. Good to talk to you, | :58:39. | :58:41. | |
thank you very much indeed. We will keep a close eye on the count as it | :58:42. | :58:47. | |
unfolds there in Ballymena. Jim Allister confident that he will hold | :58:48. | :58:51. | |
on to his seat. It's been a bad day for the Ulster Unionist party and | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
Harold McKee in particular, elected in South Down last year has been | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
eliminated. He spoke to our reporter a short time ago. | :59:00. | :59:09. | |
As an MLA for nine months, and enjoyed doing it, and I worked | :59:10. | :59:11. | |
closely with the fishermen, they knew I was working for them, despite | :59:12. | :59:18. | |
all of that, you know... Is it fair to say that RMI did not impact on | :59:19. | :59:25. | |
the DUP vote in South Down? RHI was not really mentioned as much as had | :59:26. | :59:30. | |
been and I think, you know, I don't know what obviously a massive | :59:31. | :59:36. | |
turnout by the nationalist and republican movement particularly, | :59:37. | :59:39. | |
who ferried people into the polling stations by bus, made sure they were | :59:40. | :59:43. | |
making a special effort. Your party leader Mike Nesbitt will come under | :59:44. | :59:46. | |
scrutiny off the back of the election result across Northern | :59:47. | :59:51. | |
Ireland. What do you feel his position is this evening? Well, it's | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
not for me to say at this present time, I am sure there will be | :59:56. | :59:58. | |
discussions around it in the near future. Has it been as far as you | :59:59. | :00:02. | |
are concerned a good enough performance from the Ulster | :00:03. | :00:04. | |
Unionists on the basis of what you know so far? You can't say it's a | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
good performance when you lose a seat. Is your party leader partly | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
responsible for the performance, do you think? Well, maybe had a few | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
difficulties, made it slightly awkward for myself to go to the | :00:17. | :00:22. | |
door, I did try to sell this was me, not Mike Nesbitt standing in South | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
Down. I have worked for you in the past, this is me. But it didn't | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
materialise. That was Harold McKee talking to our | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
reporter Julian O'Neill. We welcome at this stage viewers across the | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
United Kingdom on the BBC News channel for our continuing Assembly | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
election coverage here in Northern Ireland. Let's hear from Julian | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
Fowler who is our reporter in Fermanagh South Tyrone. You are at | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
Omagh Leisure Centre. Interesting developments there, what's the | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
latest? Well, in stage four we have had the election of two Sinn Fein | :00:57. | :01:03. | |
candidates, Michelle Gildernew and a new young candidate, Gemma Dolan. As | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
expected, SDLP transfers have gone to the Ulster Unionist rose marry | :01:09. | :01:16. | |
Barton and that could spell trouble for Lord Maurice Morrow, now they're | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
transferring the surplus Sinn Fein votes, that could help their third | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
candidate Sean Lynch across the line. He is currently 231 votes | :01:24. | :01:30. | |
behind Lord Morrow. With those Sinn Fein transfers that could be just | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
enough to get the last seat for Sinn Fein thachlt would leave Sinn Fein | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
here on three seats, the DUP, Arlene Foster on just one and the Ulster | :01:40. | :01:46. | |
Unionist rose marry Barton on one. Thank you very much. | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
Let's hear from Gregory Campbell, the East Londonderry MP who at the | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
East Londonderry and Foyle count at the Foyle Arena in Derry. Evening to | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
you. Thank you for joining us. You have been keeping a close eye on | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
both those counts. Yes, very close eye. It's been a long day and I am | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
sure it will be a longer evening. What about Foyle, first of all, I am | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
not sure of the state of play as far as that is concerned but Gary | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
Middleton looking good for that 5th seat in Foyle, is he? Well, yes, | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
it's not over the line yet, but a tremendous performance by Gary, | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
given the context of this sustained diet that we have had for three | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
months every day. He not only put the number of votes up that the DUP | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
got, but he put the share of the vote up, given the rise in Sinn | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
Fein's vote in a predominantly nationalist constituency, that's not | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
an easy ask and he managed to do it and I think that he will take that | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
seat. What about East Londonderry, it's your own constituency, of | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
course. You had three DUP MLAs in the six member constituency, it's | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
now five members. Are you going to lose one of those three seats? | :03:00. | :03:06. | |
We said several months ago this was very difficult to take 60% of the | :03:07. | :03:17. | |
seats, three out of five of them with 33% other foot, and | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
extraordinarily difficult thing. And it might be just be on us but if you | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
look at the votes, we had a very high vote last year in East | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
Londonderry, the highest ever in Assembly election, and we exceeded | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
that again, another 1400 on top of last year, in the face of the daily | :03:36. | :03:42. | |
onslaught every day since early December. It was an exceptional | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
result in both constituencies in the north-west. As far as the overall | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
picture is concerned, we have heard from your colleagues, Arlene Foster | :03:54. | :03:56. | |
is under an enormous amount of pressure but if you come back with | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
around 30 seats and your vote is up a little bit and your share is up, | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
1.1%, it will not necessarily be far from a bad day at the office for the | :04:09. | :04:17. | |
DUP? What happens after that? Well, that is what needs to happen. I do | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
not think there were many people who voted yesterday who said, were | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
voting this way in whichever box they put the number, to have a | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
protracted series of discussions and no government in place, no devolved | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
government. People want us to get on with the business of doing | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
government and delivering so we need discussions aimed at that deliver | :04:41. | :04:49. | |
quickly and effectively for people in Stormont so that they can see | :04:50. | :04:51. | |
some benefit from devolution. That is what they voted for in all of | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
their diverse ways and that is what we need to deliver quickly. Gregory, | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
thank you very much indeed. Gregory Campbell at the Foyle and East | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
Londonderry count in the north-west. Some news to share with you. The | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
Ulster Unionist Party, some good news, Doug Beattie has retained his | :05:10. | :05:16. | |
seat in Upper Bann, his running mate Jo-Anne Dobson was eliminated and | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
Alex, again for the Ulster Unionist Party in East Antrim, John Stewart, | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
confirmed. They will be very pleased that, in the context of losing seats | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
they did not expect to lose but sometimes it is those little nuggets | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
that make the difference between a catastrophic result and a manageable | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
result but it is still a tremendously bad day for Mike | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
Nesbitt. And that game for the Ulster Unionist Party, Catriona | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
Ruane, comes at the expense of Oliver McMullan Sinn Fein. That | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
count is completed, you have lost a seat. And I have to say, it is very | :05:54. | :06:01. | |
disappointing for Oliver. Congratulations to the UUP but it is | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
very disappointing and Oliver was a tremendous local representative. He | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
had been sick but never missed one day in Stormont and when I was in | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
Sinn Fein, he was one of the greatest team players that we have. | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
He is a fighter. We need to live there. We're getting word of a press | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
conference happening in East Belfast with the Ulster Unionist Party | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
reader, Mike Nesbitt. Mike Nesbitt coming into the room. He is joined | :06:33. | :06:42. | |
by Jim Nicholson, the MEP and Lord MP. Let us hear what he has to say. | :06:43. | :06:50. | |
It has been a miserable night. Everybody knows why we are here so I | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
will make my statement and leave the stage. I have been reflecting on the | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
implications of today's results for the party and for me as leader. Both | :07:00. | :07:07. | |
in pure terms and in contextually and an essay that, I mean the | :07:08. | :07:16. | |
context of the context of three months, I have been criticising | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
party leaders for not taking responsibility for actions that | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
occurred on their watch so it would be the height of hypocrisy if they | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
did not take full responsibility and the results today for the Ulster | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
Unionists. And in pure terms, the buck stops here. I led into the | :07:32. | :07:39. | |
selection, I argued it should be a referendum on RHI and on ten years | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
of the DUP and Sinn Fein leading the Executive government. I am the one | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
who suggested that in a normal society people would vote on | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
performance and the DUP and Sinn Fein did not earn another mandate. | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
And I am the one who said this should be Northern Ireland's first | :08:00. | :08:06. | |
post-sectarian election based on economy, education, health and | :08:07. | :08:08. | |
housing and I had a different vision. But the electorate | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
disagreed. They did not give me a mandate big enough for me to feel | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
justified in continuing in this position. So I shall not continue in | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
this position. I have spoken to the party chairman and I have informed | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
him I will not allow my name to go forward for this year's collection | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
as party leader. He will call the party officers as a matter of | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
urgency and they will define the way forward in selecting my successor. I | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
will stay in post until that process has been completed. I want to thank | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
the party chairman, Jim Nicholson, who is here. All of our elected | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
representatives and staff and all of the party members who have given me | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
the most fantastic support over the last five years. It has been an | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
absolute honour to have led the Ulster Unionist Party and a | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
challenge like no other I have ever experienced in my life. I will never | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
forget it and I will be forever grateful. My only regret is the | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
result seems to indicate that this society is more polarised than ever | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
rather than more united in a shared future, which was my aspiration. But | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
we will get there. Someday Northern Ireland will vote as a normal | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
democracy, we will vote in a post sectarian election, but it is clear | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
it will not happen during the duration of my political life. But | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
it will happen. My final thought is, when I was a journalist, listening | :09:45. | :09:51. | |
to politicians, I used to hear them saying they wanted effective family | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
and I would think, what is that about? It is only a job. I | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
understand what it is all about. And I will finish by thanking my family. | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
Thank you very much. So, Mike Nesbitt has fallen on his sword. He | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
was elected as leader of the UUP in March 2012, embracing his wife, | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
Lynda Bryans, the former presenter, and his son, PJ. At the Park Avenue | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
hotel in East Belfast. I have a panel of guests who will reflect on | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
mathematical development, it has to be said. John McCallister, in March | :10:28. | :10:34. | |
2012 he defeated you for that position. How do you feel as the | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
person who lost out to him, witnessing him announcing his | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
resignation? I get no pleasure from this because I have not been in | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
politics, having tasted success and defeat, whether it is going for | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
party leader or indeed in the election last year, it is tough. And | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
he is right to thank his family, families make huge sacrifices that | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
politicians can do jobs like this with. Often it is discounted or | :11:09. | :11:15. | |
overlooked. I do feel for Mike Nesbitt, it was an honourable | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
decision, I do not know that he had any great choice. It comes back to | :11:21. | :11:27. | |
defining what the party is about, is it unity or opposition? There have | :11:28. | :11:34. | |
been too many mixed messages over the years and that has been a | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
problem. That is not all his fault. I am not sure the party always would | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
have let him go to the places that perhaps Mike Nesbitt wanted to go. | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
Even if you take something like equal marriage, he was challenged, I | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
think we're on the wrong side of history this. Yet he was not able to | :11:53. | :11:58. | |
move the party on with something like that, around the issues of the | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
party broadly on things like unionist unity. Some of the party | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
feel closer to Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster and some feel closer | :12:07. | :12:12. | |
to Naomi Long. And that has been a problem, getting that carved out. On | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
a personal level, I feel sorry for Mike having to do that. It was a | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
brave and courageous thing to announce, particularly on a dreadful | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
day. Pretty dreadful day, described as a miserable night, he might have | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
been referring to the weather. The end of his political career. I want | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
to cross over to the Park Avenue hotel and hear from Gareth Gordon, | :12:38. | :12:40. | |
who was in the room for that news conference. He said he spent the | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
last three months criticising another leader, Arlene Foster, for | :12:47. | :12:51. | |
her handling of the situation. It would be the height of hypocrisy if | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
he did not take responsibility for his party's poor performance. The | :12:56. | :13:02. | |
buck stops here? Yes, you could say of the UUP were to make inroads on | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
the DUP it would have been this election, the DUP did not want the | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
selection under these circumstances, but only as the Ulster Unionist | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
Party failed to make inroads, it looks like they're heading for their | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
worst ever Assembly election result and as a result, Mike Nesbitt feels | :13:19. | :13:26. | |
he has no other option but to go. He said he will stand down but will | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
remain in post until a successor is found but tonight it is a pretty sad | :13:30. | :13:37. | |
end to a man, who came to the top of the party almost five years ago. | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
Almost in post for five years. Promising something new, radical | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
type of Ulster Unionist leader but it looks like ending up as other | :13:47. | :13:53. | |
recent leaders, in failure. Did he give any indication as to whether or | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
not he will continue in the medium to long-term a mLA? He did win his | :13:58. | :14:06. | |
seat in Strangford this evening. He did not allowance to ask any | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
questions, his press officer was shaking his head. He does not intend | :14:11. | :14:20. | |
to remain, I would take that as. Not only is Mike Nesbitt not going to be | :14:21. | :14:25. | |
the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party... Actually, I am told that he | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
will remain as a Ulster Unionist MLA in Strangford, this is a very | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
confused press conference. We were not allowed to ask any questions, | :14:36. | :14:40. | |
that does not make it easy. He will remain as a mLA but will not be the | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
Ulster Unionist Party leader. Who will follow him? The natural | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
successor was perhaps Danny Kennedy but he lost his seat in Newry and | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
Armagh so the party tonight is in a state of chaos. I was asking you to | :14:54. | :15:00. | |
engage in some mind reading. You are looking past the camera to the press | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
officer to see what he was trying to indicate by semaphore! Let me ask | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
you something you can answer. Did he simply make mistakes? Did he over | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
claim? Saying he would return as the largest unionist party? And by | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
suggesting that his voters would want to transfer high up in this PR | :15:22. | :15:28. | |
election to the SDLP? He seemed to do that without talking to key | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
members of his party. Ambition is not a crime for any political leader | :15:33. | :15:37. | |
so of course he was going into that election making big claims but after | :15:38. | :15:40. | |
the second part of that question, when he indicated he would make a | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
second preference to the SDLP, was at a fatal mistake? It did not help. | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
It gave a boost to the DUP because it took them off the top of the | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
agenda for Sundays and it seemed to not go down very well with lots of | :15:56. | :16:02. | |
the party's traditional grassroots. Was that the fatal flaw? Would it | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
have made any difference? We simply do not know. No doubt, this message | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
did not resonate through the party and Danny Kennedy was the first one | :16:13. | :16:15. | |
to make it clear that he did not agree with what Mike Nesbitt said | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
and Danny Kennedy has lost his seat as well. The Ulster Unionist Party | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
is a difficult party to lead, a very broad church. It gives out | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
confusing, mixed messages. Certainly, Mike Nesbitt, the | :16:33. | :16:35. | |
moderniser who felt it would take it in a different direction, he has | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
failed to do so and tonight, what is next for the Ulster Unionist Party? | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
That is the question. Thank you for that. Gareth Gordon. Doug Beattie is | :16:44. | :16:52. | |
an Ulster Unionist Party member who has won his seat, he retained his | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
seat in the Upper Bann constituency. Good evening. Congratulations. | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
Congratulations on a personal level. I need to ask you for your rip | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
action to the dramatic development where your party leader has said he | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
is standing down. Did you know he was about to do that? No, I didn't | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
know he was about to do it, Mark and I have to say that I am sorry and I | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
am saddened that Mike has decided to stand down. Mike has been a | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
fantastic leader. He has been a personal friend and a great | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
colleague. I think he is an incredibly noble man and I think he | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
has taken a noble decision. I think he believes, whether rightly or | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
wrongly, that our poor showing in this election and I know it hasn't | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
finished yet, but our poor showing in this election may well be down to | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
his leadership. I don't necessarily agree with that but he has made that | :17:47. | :17:49. | |
decision and like I said earlier I am sorry he is leaving but beneed as | :17:50. | :17:53. | |
the Ulster Unionist party to move on, we need a new leader as quickly | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
as we can. We need stability, we need to organise ourselves and carry | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
on. Well, that leads me neatly on to my next question, will your name be | :18:03. | :18:05. | |
in the frame for the leadership of the party because Gareth Gordon was | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
making the point, Danny Kennedy might have been seen as one of the | :18:10. | :18:15. | |
frontrunners, he has lost his seat in Newry and Armagh. You are there, | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
you are high profile, do you fancy the job? Well, first thing I will | :18:22. | :18:25. | |
say is that I have only heard this news ten minutes ago. So I am still | :18:26. | :18:30. | |
sucking in that information. I still want to speak to Mike personally. | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
Because he is a friend and he was my party leader. He had my 100% loyalty | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
as a party leader and as this election draws to an end he would | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
still have had that a pun % loyalty as leader. -- 100% loyalty as | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
leader. I have only been an MLA for about nine months. It would not be | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
right for me to lead the party, I do not have the political nuances that | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
many other people have. I will be there to support whoever is the | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
leader. Maybe in five or six years if we had time I could have grown, I | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
could have done my apprenticeship as an MLA, and then I could maybe stand | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
for being the leader of the Ulster Unionist party but I don't have that | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
depth of political knowledge at this moment and I have to be honest... | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
Just to be clear you are ruling yourself out of the contest at this | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
stage, you are saying no matter what happens you will not be a candidate? | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
Well, absolutely not as we speak now, Mark, ten minutes after I heard | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
the news about Mike. I am ruling it out right now. If things change, | :19:33. | :19:34. | |
then maybe I could think about it but right now as I speak to you, it | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
would not be right that I stand. There is other people there, there | :19:39. | :19:41. | |
are good people there who could lead the party, the likes of Robin Swann | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
who is incredibly diligent and a good man who could lead the party. | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
So I leave it for the time being. It's a discussion we have to have as | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
a party. And come up with a decision on the best way forward and get the | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
right person in place. Somebody who can bring a bit of stability. That | :19:59. | :20:01. | |
doesn't necessarily mean it has to be the next leader who is going to | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
fight the election but just get a bit of stability in the party and | :20:06. | :20:08. | |
then maybe even get in a leader who can battle the next election. We | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
have to look at this. Let me ask you quickly, Danny Kennedy has gone. | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
Joanne Dobson has gone, as well. And we hear that Sandro Overend is | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
struggling. It is a bad day for the Ulster Unionist party, is it not? | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
Well, if you look at it like that it is a bad day. I think our share of | :20:29. | :20:31. | |
the vote and I haven't got all the information, I think our share of | :20:32. | :20:34. | |
the vote is slightly up on the last election. But the reality is it's | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
all down to seats. Therefore, it is going to be a bad day. But you know | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
what, the Ulster Unionist party brought hope to Northern Ireland, we | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
wanted change. We wanted to show absolute respect for all people | :20:48. | :20:49. | |
within our community and that's the ticket that we stood on. We stood on | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
integrity and respect and commitment and loyalty. Yes, the electorate may | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
have turned their back on us, but that's not an aspiration we should | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
give up on easily. I won't be giving up on it easily. Appreciate your | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
time, thank you very much. Congratulations on your success on | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
what has been nonetheless as Mike Nesbitt says a miserable night for | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
the Ulster Unionist party. Nigel Dodds, I want you to reflect on that | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
and want to tell you that Nelson McCausland is out in North Belfast. | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
Well, first of all, can I just say I am sorry to hear that news, it was | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
always going to be a difficult task although we are still the largest | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
party in North Belfast, actually increased our vote at this election. | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
To get three seats out of five on some - a third of the vote was | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
always going to be an enormous stretch. Nelson has contributed | :21:43. | :21:46. | |
enormously to the DUP and to the unionist cause and will continue to | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
do so. And I think that it's important that be put on record. Was | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
that bad vote management that meant he was number three of your three | :21:56. | :21:58. | |
candidates, because he is high profile, he is a former Minister. | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
Some people might look at North Belfast and look at the other two | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
candidates with the greatest of respect, William Humphrey and Paula | :22:08. | :22:10. | |
Bradley and think Nelson McCausland may have come in ahead of them, how | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
come he was trailing in third place Our vote management in North Belfast | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
was pretty good. Both, all three candidates... Nelson McCausland | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
might not be thinking that. Nelson agreed to the strategy and was very | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
much part of it and we worked together as a team. They all were | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
within, as I understand it, 70 votes of each other, I think that's good | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
among - 700. In this election there was an increased nationalist | :22:38. | :22:40. | |
turnout, it was always a massive stwrech to take three seats on one | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
third of the vote. Look, we fully expected that this might happen. We | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
did our best and the vote was well managed. It hasn't quite come off, | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
but Nelson has an enormous contribution still to make. Can I | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
just say in terms of the other piece of news that we heard there, Mike | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
Nesbitt, I want to say first of all to wish Mike and Linda his wife and | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
his family all the very best going forward. Going into politics, taking | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
on positions of leadership, as he did, are not easy. It's very, very | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
difficult. He is right to point to the burdens that are placed on | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
people's families and it is a 24-hour schedule. It is very taxing | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
and burdensome and stressful and I understand entirely what he is | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
saying. You can hear the emotion in his voice. You know, politicians | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
today come under a lot of scrutiny and a lot of pressure and criticism | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
and rightly so, we volunteer for these jobs, we put ourselves up | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
there but there is a human dimension to it and today we are seeing people | :23:41. | :23:43. | |
who have lost their seats and Mike Nesbitt falling on his sword and I | :23:44. | :23:46. | |
appreciate the human dimension of that. The political side of it and | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
the analysis will follow but I think tonight in the immediate aftermath | :23:52. | :23:54. | |
of this I want to express my personal best wishes to Mike, Linda | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
and his family. OK. Nigel, thank you very much for that. I want to cross | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
over to the Titanic Exhibition Centre and hear from our reporter | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
David Maxwell. Just to pick up on the elimination of Nelson | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
McCausland, the DUP former DUP MLA, high profile. What is the reaction | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
there in the count centre, were people genuinely surprised that such | :24:17. | :24:24. | |
a big name should fall? Well, definitely another dramatic moment, | :24:25. | :24:27. | |
another big name gone here at the Titanic Exhibition Centre. But I | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
have to say the last time I was speaking to you I had mentioned that | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
nk was looking vulnerable and for -- Nelson McCausland was looking | :24:37. | :24:38. | |
vulnerable. For sometime the DUP have come to realise he wasn't going | :24:39. | :24:41. | |
to hold on in North Belfast. We have a word with him a few minutes ago. | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
He's now left the exhibition centre here. He said that there was a life | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
beyond politics and and he was going to reflect on his future and decide | :24:52. | :24:54. | |
whether he will ever run again or whether this is the end of his | :24:55. | :25:02. | |
political career. Well, it's obviously to some degree a little | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
bit disappointed, but, in the context of the day we increased our | :25:08. | :25:10. | |
vote in North Belfast. That was good. Didn't translate to seats. It | :25:11. | :25:13. | |
didn't translate to seats, that's right, there was a bigger increase | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
on the nationalist side and there will be an opportunity over the next | :25:18. | :25:21. | |
while to have a review of what happened, how it came about, and we | :25:22. | :25:24. | |
will build from it. What does it mean to you, you are a senior figure | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
in the DUP, a former Minister. It means that there is a life beyond | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
politics. And there are lots of other things that I want to do and | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
intend to do. Is that it, Nelson is your political career finished? Did | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
I say that? You said you had a life beyond it. In the short-term, yes. A | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
difficult day, Nelson, for you and your staff, as well. Well, indeed. | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
It's particularly, I think of the interests of the staff who work in | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
the office and the impact it has on them. And that's I think the human | :25:54. | :26:00. | |
thing to think about. But, you know, I fought many elections, there have | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
been all sorts of changes today. I am relaxed about the whole thing. | :26:05. | :26:11. | |
You will be back? There are a lot of things to think about. I don't make | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
any predictions. There you go. Nelson McCausland | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
talking to David Maxwell and not committing himself to a political | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
return but not ruling it out, it has to be said. He is been around for a | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
long time. Caitriona Ruane, you must have got to know him a bit at the | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
Assembly, how do you feel about his departure? I knew him in City Hall, | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
as well, I was the director of - he was one of the people at the time | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
who voted against many projects we were involved in, I knew him in the | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
Assembly, I was in the Executive with him. Look, I just know how | :26:48. | :26:54. | |
tough it is to put yourself forward for election. I am speaking not just | :26:55. | :26:58. | |
in terms of Nelson here, but also Mike Nesbitt and Danny Kennedy | :26:59. | :27:02. | |
and... Philip Smith has also gone. Sandra. You know, it's tough. | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
Politics is a tough, tough game. I know I am repeating what other | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
people have said. You are just out there, you are in the public eye. | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
People don't see what happens behind the scenes. What did you make of | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
that Mike Nesbitt announcement, it was short, it was sharp and anything | :27:20. | :27:26. | |
but sweet? Yeah, well, I think Coe have picked a better time to do it. | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
I don't want to be critical... Do you mean because it was very quick? | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
It might have been better to have discussions with his party and - I | :27:37. | :27:42. | |
think sometimes and I don't want to focus on some of the maybe | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
criticisms I have of the way maybe Mike managed the party, but | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
party-building, for me, is very important. And I think you need to | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
put time into the building blocks and I think sometimes Mike put more | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
into the media and maybe the Assembly team. It's important - I | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
don't think candidates should be hearing about resignations as | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
they're in count centres. Having said that, I wish Mike all the best. | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
I always found him a pleasure to work with. Indeed, all his party | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
when I was in the Chair in the Assembly, I never had any issues | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
with any of his party. OK. Let's talk to Fionnuala and Alex. Alex, | :28:27. | :28:30. | |
you are a former director of communications for the you will | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
unionist party, the party that Mike Nesbitt still leads but not for much | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
longer, he threw himself under the bus this evening in dramatic | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
fashion, catching people on the hop, not least Doug Beattie who obviously | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
did not know that was coming and was somewhat wrong-footed by it. What do | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
you make of his decision to go and to go so quickly? I think the | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
decision was inevitable. I tweeted before lunch that barring a miracle | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
that his leadership was untenable. I agree, one of the problems Mike had | :29:01. | :29:06. | |
with this campaign was that he was accused of bouncing his candidates | :29:07. | :29:09. | |
by telling you about transferring to the SDLP. None of them knew about | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
it. He did exactly the same with his resignation. Straight over to Doug | :29:15. | :29:20. | |
Beattie, he knows something about it. I presume others know nothing | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
about it. Some elected for the first time have no idea now who will be | :29:26. | :29:28. | |
leading the party. To go back to a clip earlier with Harold McKee, the | :29:29. | :29:33. | |
defeated candidate in South Down, when asked about the campaign said I | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
had to go on the door-steps and tell people it was me campaigning, not | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
Mike Nesbitt. I think that, take all that in, the fact that I think the | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
UUP were not expecting the spectacular, I think they would be | :29:49. | :29:51. | |
lucky to get 13, I said if it fell below 13 he had problems, this is | :29:52. | :29:56. | |
catastrophe, when you lose people like Joe and Dobson, Danny Kennedy, | :29:57. | :30:07. | |
and Sandra Overend. You win and lose battles according to circumstances. | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
In this case I think a lot of people, will blame him personally. | :30:12. | :30:14. | |
Fionnuala? Well, we were talking about psychology earlier. I was | :30:15. | :30:20. | |
thinking two things there. Listening to Nigel and Caitriona Ruane, Nigel | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
in particular, first making that handsome reference and tribute to | :30:26. | :30:29. | |
Mike and listening to Jim Wells earlier doing the decent thing about | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
PJ Bradley. It was a great relief to hear all those things because it has | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
been so unpleasant over the last six months. Listening to people doing | :30:39. | :30:42. | |
the decent thing and saying the decent thing after an election like | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
this is very important for it, it's important for us too. We sit here | :30:47. | :30:52. | |
and we do, we only see what goes on in front of the camera. We don't see | :30:53. | :30:59. | |
the strains and the emotion behind it as Nigel has suffered and | :31:00. | :31:04. | |
Catriona has suffered in different ways. Then the Mike phenomenon, a | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
media man to his finger tips, brought in really to improve their | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
PR image. He did that in ways but also did it - he did it by being | :31:14. | :31:18. | |
pleasant and smooth in performance. But he also did it by bouncing all | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
over the place. He didn't just bounce people individually, and this | :31:23. | :31:25. | |
is, I am doing now what the politicians didn't do, I am being | :31:26. | :31:29. | |
brutal immediately after the event. I won't do it in much more detail. | :31:30. | :31:36. | |
But he didn't just do trying to run a non-sectarian campaign and a | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
non-sectarian Ulster Unionist party, he richo... There was a Westminster | :31:42. | :31:47. | |
fight two years ago. There was that loyalist forum he joined, that | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
period of the flags protest. I think he bewildered a lot of people in the | :31:52. | :31:55. | |
party and voters too and that you can not do. OK. Stay with me. I do | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
want to hear more from you shortly. I want to go to Fermanagh and South | :32:01. | :32:07. | |
Tyrone and to Omagh Leisure Centre and join Michelle Gildernew from | :32:08. | :32:10. | |
Sinn Fein who has been returned, held on to her seat as an MLA in | :32:11. | :32:16. | |
that constituency. First of all, congratulations to you. That's a | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
good result from your point of view. Also home for you is Gemma Dolan. It | :32:23. | :32:26. | |
looks like Sean Lynch could be in trouble. | :32:27. | :32:31. | |
He is still in there and I want to congratulate all of our successful | :32:32. | :32:39. | |
candidates, it has been a great day and we hope that Sean and Declan | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
McAleer will be returned before we leave the leisure centre and I am | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
personally saddened at losing Oliver McMullan, not just a great friend | :32:49. | :32:52. | |
but a great worker and a big loss to the Assembly but so far a great day | :32:53. | :32:56. | |
and please God we will have shone and Declan over the line. Philip | :32:57. | :33:02. | |
McGuigan, your party colleague in North Antrim, who replaced the | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
haematite, has been successful and he is in. We can see Michelle | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
O'Neill congratulating him. And he is beaming like the proverbial | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
Cheshire cat. That will not surprise you. No, he is a great fellow and we | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
are delighted to see him in the Assembly and there have been great | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
results across the board today. This election was based on integrity and | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
respect and equality and the electorate have had their say and I | :33:34. | :33:37. | |
would hope the DUP will listen to what they have said today. We need | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
to go back to the Assembly and into negotiations with a fresh mandate | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
and a fresh approach and a different approach and an approach that does | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
have respect and equality at its core. I have been very disappointed | :33:52. | :33:55. | |
in things that have been said and done in my time in the Assembly and | :33:56. | :33:58. | |
I hope this mandate will be different. This election was a | :33:59. | :34:06. | |
difficult 1,000 of people wiped off the register in Fermanagh-South | :34:07. | :34:08. | |
Tyrone and we have a huge amount of work to do to get them back on and I | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
am proud to be the only woman, as far as I know, to have fought every | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
single Assembly election since the Good Friday Agreement and to win a | :34:19. | :34:24. | |
seat. I am deeply appreciative of the brilliant people are | :34:25. | :34:27. | |
Fermanagh-South Tyrone who have returned us so far and they are | :34:28. | :34:30. | |
fabulous people and I want to say thanks a million. Go raibh maith | :34:31. | :34:39. | |
agat. I can just hear, Sean Lynch has been deemed elected. Three Sinn | :34:40. | :34:43. | |
Fein in Fermanagh-South Tyrone. We are over the moon. You could get a | :34:44. | :34:50. | |
job as a results tally person. Some people cheering over your shoulder, | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
I wondered what was happening. He was in a tight fight but he has been | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
successful? It has been confirmed. And I would take from that that the | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
candidate who lost was Maurice Morrow and the DUP will have to | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
reflect on that and the result they have here today and listen to the | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
people, we absolutely need to see a different tenor in the Executive and | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
the Assembly. We all about building and Ireland of equals and we will | :35:23. | :35:26. | |
not start by being trampled over in Belfast. Thank you for joining us | :35:27. | :35:32. | |
and keeping us up to speed with developments. We don't have | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
confirmation that is the case but we did know that Maurice Morrow was in | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
difficulty. That would mean that Rosemary Barton of the European | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
might well have held onto her seat in Fermanagh South Tyrone. Jenny | :35:48. | :35:51. | |
Palmer of the Ulster Unionist Party, formerly of the DUP, is out in Lagan | :35:52. | :35:57. | |
Valley. Another body blow to the Ulster Unionist Party and Mike | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
Nesbitt. Let us hear more from the Belfast counts at the Titanic | :36:04. | :36:04. | |
Exhibition Centre. Tara Mills... I am with the SDLP's Nichola Mallon, | :36:05. | :36:16. | |
we will keep you occupied because nobody is elected yet in north | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
Belfast? We are working through the motions, Nelson McCausland has been | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
eliminated so hopefully in the next couple of hours we will have the | :36:26. | :36:28. | |
candidates declared and we will know the result. Whenever it comes to the | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
broader picture, we will talk about the SDLP but I want your reaction to | :36:34. | :36:39. | |
Mike Nesbitt's news. The issue of leadership by the Ulster Unionists | :36:40. | :36:42. | |
is a matter for the Ulster Unionists. Emma Hurd Mike Nesbitt | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
saying he was not clear his message resonated and I think it was heard | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
in North Belfast, if you look at the transfers from the Ulster Unionist | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
candidate, a significant portion went to the centre ground and they | :36:56. | :36:58. | |
know from speaking to people that are numbered of unionists did vote | :36:59. | :37:02. | |
for me so the message of partnership in the centre ground did resonate | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
somewhat in North Belfast. Is there any sense of frustration? People are | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
talking about opposition, is any frustration that he did not have | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
long enough in opposition to produce any viable alternative to the big | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
parties? Opposition is a new dynamic and it was only gathering momentum. | :37:22. | :37:25. | |
We were beginning to work together and produce motions but we never | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
expected the starting pistol to be fired so early. We would have wanted | :37:31. | :37:35. | |
more time but we have to build on that and there are areas, including | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
North Belfast, where people want that choice. North Belfast is | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
considered one of the most fractious and polarised constituencies but | :37:45. | :37:46. | |
clearly people have chosen the centre ground and that is a positive | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
message that we need people to be aware of. And a bigger nationalist | :37:51. | :37:56. | |
voice given that Nelson McCausland has been eliminated? There was a | :37:57. | :37:59. | |
bigger turnout in North Belfast and that was strongly | :38:00. | :38:22. | |
connected to be tried for the Brexit referendum. That was an issue around | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
the doors and I am an Irish nationalist and I am confident that | :38:27. | :38:29. | |
did not stand on the orange or Green ticket, I did not use sectarian | :38:30. | :38:31. | |
language, I stood with a partnership approach on bread-and-butter issues | :38:32. | :38:33. | |
and that worked for us in North Belfast so there is an appetite. We | :38:34. | :38:36. | |
needed longer to build on this. People went to the polls and they're | :38:37. | :38:38. | |
facing direct rule. This is an outcome that is in nobody's | :38:39. | :38:41. | |
interests. It is about what happens after the results and we need to get | :38:42. | :38:43. | |
around the table. We need devolved government based on power-sharing. | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
Your vote has held up but there are losses with Alex Attwood | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
disappearing from West Belfast. What do you think the SDLP will reflect | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
upon afterwards? After every election, we sit down and look at | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
the figures and we look seriously at what lessons can be learnt. We have | :39:02. | :39:07. | |
taken a blow in West Belfast with Alex but we will take a seat back in | :39:08. | :39:11. | |
Upper Bann so we need to look at the whole picture and learn from that, | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
definitely. We might be getting something from North Belfast? | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
Hopefully! Thank you very much. We will bring you that North Belfast | :39:22. | :39:27. | |
result if it comes. Thank you. We can come back to this end of the | :39:28. | :39:34. | |
table and talk to vanilla and Alex. A quick word about what we have been | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
hearing about. It looks like bad news for the DUP in Fermanagh-South | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
Tyrone but potentially good news in the other constituency of Lagan | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
Valley, when they might hold onto that seat they thought might be | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
going because Gerry Palmer is out? This is it for Arlene Foster and the | :39:55. | :40:02. | |
DUP, it has been a curious turnout. Up in some ways, just holding in | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
orders. Morris Mauro going out is another big blow for Arlene Foster | :40:09. | :40:13. | |
in that constituency, they have been shoulder to shoulder, how close they | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
actually are, I do not know. They have been trotted out together and | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
appearing together and making jokes together, he once stalwart companion | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
and he is out. Alex? Fionnuala is right. In Lagan Valley the DUP will | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
be delighted, they will not have said publicly but it was always | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
going to be difficult holding the three but that point about another, | :40:40. | :40:49. | |
Jimmy -- Jenny Palmer going out, the Ulster Unionist Party can only get | :40:50. | :40:56. | |
ten and that is devastating. You were talking about three seats for | :40:57. | :41:01. | |
the DUP, that was the third seat, Sean Lynch for Sinn Fein in | :41:02. | :41:04. | |
Fermanagh-South Tyrone, a very impressive performance by Sinn Fein. | :41:05. | :41:10. | |
Sinn Fein and the DUP have reason to be happy, they did what parties have | :41:11. | :41:17. | |
to do, they got the vote out, Mike Nesbitt might complain, the reality | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
is, these parties did deliver on that day and the smaller parties | :41:22. | :41:24. | |
with the exception of the Alliance Party did not deliver. The Ulster | :41:25. | :41:31. | |
Unionist Party and the SDLP will have to consider the relevance of | :41:32. | :41:34. | |
their parties and if there is any room for them electorally in | :41:35. | :41:40. | |
Northern Ireland. We talked about Oliver McMullan, who lost his seat | :41:41. | :41:43. | |
after many years at the Assembly and he has not been well. That is good | :41:44. | :41:50. | |
news for Sean Lynch? It is good news for Sinn Fein in Fermanagh-South | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
Tyrone and it shows how things can change, in the last election we did | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
not do well in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and we ran too many | :42:00. | :42:02. | |
candidates and be learnt from that and we went in there... You made a | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
complete dog's breakfast of it last time! We should not have put up four | :42:09. | :42:17. | |
candidates. It is phenomenal we have three out of five and people will be | :42:18. | :42:21. | |
surprised to hear this, Maurice Morrow and myself had political | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
differences but he is a very funny man and I was on the Business | :42:26. | :42:28. | |
Committee with him and he has a quirky sense of humour and he is one | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
of the people I will miss! On a personal level, sad to see him | :42:33. | :42:39. | |
going? On a personal level? For the personal level. I was with Jenny | :42:40. | :42:46. | |
Palmer today at the Lisburn count. She really tried her best in the | :42:47. | :42:51. | |
Assembly. She really wanted to make a difference. It is tough. She put | :42:52. | :43:00. | |
herself forward. She has had a tough time, there have been internal | :43:01. | :43:03. | |
issues between herself and the DUP in the past and she was working with | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
the UUP. It is tough. She is going home tonight and probably just wants | :43:10. | :43:13. | |
to close the door. It is a brutal game. Nigel Dodds, Maurice Morrow | :43:14. | :43:19. | |
going, he is a friend of yours. Popular in the party, is that a body | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
blow to Arlene Foster? In many senses he was her mental? That is a | :43:25. | :43:32. | |
big blow to the DUP family, Maurice Morrow is the chairman and has given | :43:33. | :43:36. | |
a lifetime of service. He was elected to the local council in the | :43:37. | :43:42. | |
early 70s. He has been around a long time. His career is not over? No, he | :43:43. | :43:49. | |
is a member of the House of Lords and there is no retirement from | :43:50. | :43:56. | |
that! It is an enormous blow. I will hold Maurice Morrow in the highest | :43:57. | :44:02. | |
esteem, he piloted through the last Assembly an important piece of | :44:03. | :44:05. | |
private members legislation in terms of human slavery and trafficking and | :44:06. | :44:11. | |
so on and he has been talking to people across Europe and elsewhere | :44:12. | :44:16. | |
about that. He made an enormous contribution to the Assembly and | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
will continue to make a contribution to the party so I wish them well and | :44:21. | :44:26. | |
it is very sad but in this election, we are seeing some very well known | :44:27. | :44:31. | |
household names not returning to the Assembly and the people have spoken. | :44:32. | :44:36. | |
We must always remember, at the end of the day the other servants of the | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
people and can be brutal and very difficult. But we have to respect | :44:42. | :44:45. | |
that. I am very gratified that Nelson McCausland, Maurice Morrow, | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
other people from other parties, Danny Kennedy made an extremely | :44:52. | :44:56. | |
gracious speech... On a personal level, can you feel Jenny's pain? I | :44:57. | :45:05. | |
fought and lost an election, it is not very pleasant. Of course. People | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
will be going home tonight to families, very upset and emotionally | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
distraught and all the rest of it. The others, looking at Nelson, my | :45:17. | :45:21. | |
colleague, who was very philosophical and he will take that | :45:22. | :45:24. | |
in his stride and others will take this in a difficult fashion but | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
certainly Maurice Morrow will be greatly missed. Danny Kennedy is | :45:29. | :45:35. | |
quoted as saying, when he was asked how he felt, I am too tired to love, | :45:36. | :45:41. | |
and I am too old to cry and his voice cracked. You could see the | :45:42. | :45:48. | |
pain and sadness. One of the remarkable things is those who have | :45:49. | :45:54. | |
died out today, it was with gracious fashion and with a very good | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
response and that is a tribute to democracy. Naomi Long joins us. | :45:59. | :46:06. | |
Welcome. We heard from the earlier time and the count centre, who | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
topped the poll in East Belfast and as things stand, according to my | :46:12. | :46:16. | |
computer, you are the only MLA for East Belfast at this stage? So far, | :46:17. | :46:24. | |
yes. Although I think both Joanne Bunting and Chris Liddle are close | :46:25. | :46:29. | |
behind. Only 25 votes between them, one or the other if not both will be | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
elected during the next round. What then? Andy Allen from the UUP | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
hanging on? And one of the two DUP... Yes, Robin Newton is ahead of | :46:41. | :46:48. | |
David Douglas but that is difficult to judge because with transfers, | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
people might just vote in order of alphabet and that might benefit | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
David Douglas so we will not know until the last votes are counted. | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
David Douglas, the son of Sami Douglas, he has the name but Robin | :47:03. | :47:05. | |
Newton has been around for a very long time. He has been caught up in | :47:06. | :47:11. | |
some controversy, it is fair to say. Interesting to see how that plays | :47:12. | :47:17. | |
out. Down to the wire. We will get a good idea after the transfers. Once | :47:18. | :47:25. | |
Chris and July get over the line, then it is things like what happens | :47:26. | :47:30. | |
to this PUP vote? That should give us a clear picture of which of the | :47:31. | :47:33. | |
remaining DUP candidates will go through. | :47:34. | :47:36. | |
What is your reading at this stage of proceedings as to what the | :47:37. | :47:42. | |
public's verdict is because it seems to me you can read it in several | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
different ways. How do you read it? Well, in terms of their verdict on | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
what we did over the election, I think it's a positive verdict. It's | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
the best result we have had since 1969 in terms of votes and vote | :47:57. | :48:00. | |
share -- 1979. The share is up. It is, we have seen our vote double and | :48:01. | :48:04. | |
triple in some constituencies which was important because I said I | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
wanted to reach out beyond the East of Northern Ireland and actually | :48:09. | :48:12. | |
make inroads in the West. We have seen some improvement in our vote | :48:13. | :48:15. | |
share there in those places. We were starting from a low base. But we | :48:16. | :48:19. | |
have the potential there in future to be able to build for council | :48:20. | :48:23. | |
seats and that's a Goodway for us to be coming out of this election. The | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
wider picture, the one message we can take away is that the increase | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
turnout is very clear to me it's the best turnout I think there's been in | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
an Assembly election since the one immediately after the Good Friday | :48:37. | :48:39. | |
Agreement. I think that shows when people see the institutions in peril | :48:40. | :48:42. | |
they care about it. I think the message people are sending from | :48:43. | :48:45. | |
their vote yesterday regardless of whether they voted DUP or Sinn Fein | :48:46. | :48:48. | |
or Ulster Unionist or SDLP or whoever they voted for is they want | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
the institutions to work. That's a challenge, because I think DUP and | :48:54. | :48:55. | |
Sinn Fein in terms of their campaign have set themselves at loggerheads. | :48:56. | :48:58. | |
It's going to be very difficult to climb down from some of the | :48:59. | :49:01. | |
positions taken. But they've got to do it. Because it's very clear they | :49:02. | :49:05. | |
were given a mandate to run an Assembly and an Executive that works | :49:06. | :49:08. | |
and it's got to happen, that's what people want. We will hear lots more | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
from you shortly. For now, thank you. Thank you to the rest of you. | :49:13. | :49:19. | |
Let's cross back to Mark Devenport with Nicholas Whyte who has been | :49:20. | :49:23. | |
looking at the ups and downs of leadership within unionism down the | :49:24. | :49:25. | |
years. Thank you very much, Mark. We have | :49:26. | :49:30. | |
decided to change academic disciplines, we are going to become | :49:31. | :49:36. | |
amateur historians, you have it in your blood. Your dad was Professor | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
JJ Whyte, a noted historian of the Troubles and I have dabbled with | :49:41. | :49:43. | |
history myself. The reason for all of this talk of history is let's | :49:44. | :49:46. | |
look at the history of the Ulster Unionist party because we have seen | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
yet another dramatic move with Mike Nesbitt stepping down. | :49:51. | :49:54. | |
This follows what was for a long period of time Ulster Unionist | :49:55. | :49:57. | |
leaders seemed to be staying there forever. James Molyneaux 16 years. | :49:58. | :50:10. | |
Lord Craigavon for 19 years. When Molyneaux was the leader, they were | :50:11. | :50:15. | |
the dominant party. The 1993 local Government elections, 29%. They were | :50:16. | :50:19. | |
basically double what the DUP had. They held the majority of the | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
parliamentary seats, as well. Then David Trimble, obviously he came in. | :50:25. | :50:29. | |
The historic leader of the Ulster Unionists who signed the Good Friday | :50:30. | :50:33. | |
Agreement. That cost him a lot of - caused him a lot of pain but they | :50:34. | :50:38. | |
were still maintaining dominance. I think on 21%, DUP on 18%, closing | :50:39. | :50:44. | |
the gap. Much closer than would really had been comfortable. They | :50:45. | :50:47. | |
had been leading 2-1 and we saw the peace process closing that gap. | :50:48. | :50:51. | |
David Trimble still in power when the DUP went into the ascendancy. If | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
we stick with Assembly elections, I think 2003 we had the DUP coming up | :50:57. | :51:02. | |
to 26%. The Ulster Unionists tailing them on 23%. Then a party in | :51:03. | :51:09. | |
problems, three leaders in relatively quick succession, in the | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
space of about 12 years. They're trying whatever they can to | :51:15. | :51:18. | |
find the magic recipe, be it linking up with the Conservatives or pacts | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
or whatever. In terms of Assembly elections we have a graph that | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
doesn't appear to show very much. The fact is it doesn't show very | :51:28. | :51:30. | |
much. It doesn't show any progress at all. | :51:31. | :51:36. | |
This is starting up the Reg Empey period. | :51:37. | :51:39. | |
The tables have turned. The Ulster Unionists on about double the vote. | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
This masks how bad the situation is. In terms of votes the DUP are on | :51:45. | :51:47. | |
twice as many. In terms of seats they're going to finish today with | :51:48. | :51:52. | |
three times as many I reckon. I think the Ulster Unionists will | :51:53. | :51:55. | |
probably end on about nine. Tom Elliott not ail to close the gap. | :51:56. | :52:00. | |
Mike Nesbitt's problem has been in 2016 the gap was still about 2-1, | :52:01. | :52:05. | |
13%. 29%. In 2017, he hasn't closed the gap either. It's much the same. | :52:06. | :52:10. | |
Expect that it's worse. Today the Ulster Unionists probably losing | :52:11. | :52:13. | |
seven of their 16 seats. In seats, yeah. In vote share much the same | :52:14. | :52:18. | |
but in seats he hasn't made any mark. He has made a loss in seats. | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
They haven't had an uptake since the 1990s. Politics is about more than | :52:25. | :52:30. | |
just changing your leader? You have to try something and keep on trying | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
until something else works. Try, try and try again. The Robert the Bruce | :52:35. | :52:42. | |
strategy. That's not really my historical period. | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
It isn't mine either, but thank you very much. | :52:46. | :52:47. | |
That's interesting. Let's hear from Stephen Walker following | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
developments in Strangford. There is a battle for that final 5th | :52:52. | :52:59. | |
seat. There is. Surprisingly it's Joe Boyle of the SDLP right at the | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
death, a lot of people thought it would be Philip Smith of the Ulster | :53:04. | :53:07. | |
Unionists but he has been excluded. They're looking at his vote at the | :53:08. | :53:11. | |
moment. Everyone is saying it will be Peter Weir that will take that | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
5th seat in Strangford, it means the DUP will have three seats in | :53:17. | :53:20. | |
Strangford. Obviously it means that DUP gamble of moving Peter Weir from | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
North Down to Strangford will have paid off. If that's the case. So of | :53:25. | :53:29. | |
the two constituencies, Strangford and North Down, four elected in | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
Strangford and four elected in North Down. The final seat in North Down | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
looks as if it is going to go to Stephen Agnew. We are moving to the | :53:39. | :53:41. | |
final stages here in Strangford and North Down. Thank you very much. | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
Dramatic developments with Julian Fowler in Fermanagh and South | :53:48. | :53:50. | |
Tyrone. Maurice Morrow is sought. That's right. You heard it when | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
Michelle Gildernew was speaking to you earlier, I have been given the | :53:56. | :54:03. | |
final tally. Rose marry Barton 8442 votes. Sean Lynch, Sinn Fein, 7717 | :54:04. | :54:12. | |
and Maurice Morrow 7411, just over 300 votes short of that final seat. | :54:13. | :54:19. | |
That means three Sinn Fein, one DUP, Arlene Foster and one Ulster | :54:20. | :54:22. | |
Unionist, rose marry mar ban elected. Still waiting for the final | :54:23. | :54:26. | |
declares declaration to be made and the candidates to make their | :54:27. | :54:31. | |
speeches. Earlier Arlene Foster declined a request to be interviewed | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
by the BBC. I have been speaking to other journalists here who said they | :54:37. | :54:40. | |
- she has told them she has no intention of standing down, no real | :54:41. | :54:44. | |
surprise there. She said she has a job of work to do which has been | :54:45. | :54:48. | |
made more challenging by tonight. So, hopefully we will still get an | :54:49. | :54:51. | |
opportunity to speak to Arlene Foster later. | :54:52. | :54:54. | |
We look forward to that. Thank you very much. | :54:55. | :55:04. | |
From one Julian to another. Julian O'Neill at the Lagan valley count. | :55:05. | :55:07. | |
Things are interesting, Lagan valley and of course South Down you are | :55:08. | :55:12. | |
keeping an eye on. What can you tell us? I am, Mark. The latest, I | :55:13. | :55:21. | |
believe it is the SDLP who have requested a recount of stage five of | :55:22. | :55:28. | |
the Lagan Valley count. This I think relates to the redistribution of | :55:29. | :55:32. | |
votes of two candidates who were eliminated. I don't think it's going | :55:33. | :55:36. | |
to change the fact that Jenny Palmer has lost her seat as a result of | :55:37. | :55:43. | |
that stage. But the SDLP want that stage recounted. I think it probably | :55:44. | :55:45. | |
stems from the fact that they do believe that they are in with a very | :55:46. | :55:51. | |
slim chance of taking the 5th and final seat here in Lagan Valley. Let | :55:52. | :55:57. | |
me recap. At this stage we have only one candidate returned in Lagan | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
Valley, that is Paul Givan who topped the poll for the DUP. I would | :56:02. | :56:05. | |
fully expect Edwin Poots, his party colleague, to join him, Trevor Lunn | :56:06. | :56:11. | |
of the Alliance Party also to be elected and Robbie Butler of the | :56:12. | :56:14. | |
Ulster Unionists who has outpolled Jenny Palmer. That leaves the final | :56:15. | :56:20. | |
seat which the DUP are now confident that Brenda Hale will take, so the | :56:21. | :56:24. | |
DUP would retain three seats in Lagan Valley, but that's all looking | :56:25. | :56:28. | |
into the future. No one knows whether this count will finish | :56:29. | :56:32. | |
tonight or carry into tomorrow. Things are much more advanced in | :56:33. | :56:39. | |
South Down. We currently have two Sinn Fein candidates elected along | :56:40. | :56:45. | |
with Sinead Bradley of the SDLP and Jim Wells of the DUP. A 5th seat | :56:46. | :56:50. | |
there remains to be filled. It looks like it will go to Colin McGrath of | :56:51. | :56:56. | |
the SDLP giving them the two seats that they came into this election | :56:57. | :57:00. | |
with. Harold McKee, who won the 6th seat for the Ulster Unionists last | :57:01. | :57:05. | |
May, lost out. That's the latest situation from Lisburn where both | :57:06. | :57:08. | |
counts are still continuing. Thank you very much. | :57:09. | :57:15. | |
Two counts still continuing in Ballymena. Joining us is Maggie | :57:16. | :57:21. | |
Taggart. North Antrim and Mid Ulster. North Antrim, after a long | :57:22. | :57:28. | |
delay has elected its first MLA and that ironically for a strong | :57:29. | :57:32. | |
loyalist area is Sinn Fein's Philip McGuigan. We think that two of the | :57:33. | :57:37. | |
three DUP candidates, the previous MLAs, are likely to be re-elected, | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
Mervyn Storey and Paul Frew. The third is vulnerable, that is Philip | :57:44. | :57:48. | |
Logan from the DUP. It's likely that he will lose out to Robin Swann of | :57:49. | :57:53. | |
the Ulster Unionist party, in the spotlight at the moment and he is | :57:54. | :57:56. | |
obviously hoping he will get in. We should hear shortly because I | :57:57. | :58:01. | |
understand earlier Doug Beattie was mentioning that Robin Swann could | :58:02. | :58:05. | |
likely take over from Mike Nesbitt as leader of the Ulster Unionist | :58:06. | :58:09. | |
party. In Mid Ulster, three Sinn Fein elected, one DUP. We are likely | :58:10. | :58:16. | |
to have a casualty in the Ulster Unionist party, Sandra Overs end, | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
she is likely to have lost out to Patsy McGlone of the SDLP, only 500 | :58:22. | :58:25. | |
votes short of a quota now. Thank you very much. | :58:26. | :58:33. | |
Let's talk to John O'Dowd from Upper Bann, a Sinn Fein candidate, former | :58:34. | :58:39. | |
Minister. Evening to you, thank you very much for joining us. First of | :58:40. | :58:45. | |
all, congratulations to you on retaining your seat. Thank you very | :58:46. | :58:50. | |
much. A lot more comfortable this time than ten months ago when we | :58:51. | :58:55. | |
were discussing the possibility of you having to find some alternative | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
employment. I think you were discussing put ago bet on me losing | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
my seat at that time. Lucky for you you didn't put it on. I am not a | :59:04. | :59:07. | |
betting man, John! I might have been thinking about other people or | :59:08. | :59:09. | |
encouraging other people to take a bet. But I wouldn't be that easily | :59:10. | :59:15. | |
parted with my money, you know! It was 168 votes that time. You are | :59:16. | :59:19. | |
through this time. Does it look to you like - the battle for the 5th | :59:20. | :59:26. | |
seat is between your party colleague Nuala Toman and the SDLP's Dolores | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
Kelly. Someone saw her looking happy within the last five minutes, so do | :59:32. | :59:36. | |
you think she's going to retake her seat? It's unlikely that we will | :59:37. | :59:41. | |
take two seats in Upper Bann and Dolores Kelly will be returned. | :59:42. | :59:44. | |
That's the decision of the electorate. Now we have increased | :59:45. | :59:51. | |
our vote in Upper Bann by around 3,000 votes which is a remarkable | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
turnaround in events. It's a clear signal from the people, the | :59:56. | :59:57. | |
nationalist people in Upper Bann, that they want to move forward, they | :59:58. | :00:00. | |
want power-sharing but on the basis of the agreements we have signed up | :00:01. | :00:05. | |
to. They want it on the basis of equality and respect and they want | :00:06. | :00:07. | |
to weed out corruption at the heart of Government. We have a strong | :00:08. | :00:10. | |
mandate. We have to use it wisely, we have to use it sensibly. Over the | :00:11. | :00:16. | |
next number of weeks through our leadership and Michelle guilder New | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
And Gerry Adams and others we will enter those negotiations in a bid to | :00:20. | :00:25. | |
return power-sharing but on the basis of the terms outlined and the | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
basis of the agreements signed up to previously and that integrity and | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
equality is at the heart of the Government moving forward. You know | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
that the DUP is sensitive about what you have just said. And will say | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
categorically there is no evidence of corruption at the heart of | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
Government. There are alcombagss -- allegations made by Sinn Fein but | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
now a public inquiry into the RHI scandal and it will report in due | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
course and then we will make our judgments. So, those suggestions of | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
corruption are nothing more than suggestions at this stage. Well, | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
there is allegations from sources within the media, sources from | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
within the DUP itself and sources elsewhere. As you say, the public | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
inquiry will find the truth out about exactly what was going on in | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
relation to RHI. It will investigate all those matters and we will have | :01:16. | :01:18. | |
the truth eventually come out about that matter. We also have to deal | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
with the issue of Brexit. We also have to deal with the issue of | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
inequality in our society and we have to deal with the issue of | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
power-sharing on the basis of equality, of partners in that | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
power-sharing arrangement. If, as expected, that the DUP and Sinn Fein | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
will be returned out of this election, as the two largest | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
parties, then the only way pow irvrer-sharing can be restored is | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
upon that basis. Congratulations, John. Thank you very much for | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
joining us. We will look for confirmation of that result shortly | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
in that particular constituency. Let's go to Fermanagh South Tyrone | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
and hear from Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, that count is now finished. | :02:01. | :02:06. | |
Arlene Foster topped the poll. But she's proved a little bit elusive as | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
far as the BBC is concerned. She's declined an invitation to talk to us | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
directly at this stage. Hopefully we will hear from her maybe later this | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
evening or indeed tomorrow. She has spoken from the platform at her | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
count and this is what she had to say. | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
Can I first of all thank Martin by the way in which we have run the | :02:27. | :02:34. | |
count and in your usual professional way and all of staff, who have | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
engaged here tonight. Can I thank the police Service of Northern | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
Ireland for the security they have provided during yesterday in the | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
election and here tonight in Omagh again. Can I thank those who have | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
voted for the Democratic Unionist Party in this election, our vote has | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
increased in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and I want to thank all of those who | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
have put their faith in us. I want to thank our election agent, Clement | :03:04. | :03:11. | |
Cuthbertson, and all the volunteers from the DUP who have been working | :03:12. | :03:18. | |
so hard over the past number of weeks for Morris and myself. Of | :03:19. | :03:27. | |
course, I want to pay tribute to a dear friend, Maurice Morrow, my | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
mentors in many ways, since I joined the DUP. In PR elections, sometimes | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
it can be tough between running mates and I am delighted to say that | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
Maurice Morrow and myself have never had across word between us and I | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
want to think himself and Jennifer for their friendship and Maurice for | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
his courage and everything you have contributed to the Northern Ireland | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
Assembly, Fermanagh and South Tyrone as a constituency is worse off for | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
you not being there and there are many who will agree. Personally, I | :04:02. | :04:09. | |
want to thank my family and for all of the support they have given me | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
over what has been a challenging time. In some ways. And I thank them | :04:13. | :04:20. | |
for the love they have provided to me and the support and to all of | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
those who have been supporting me in practical ways and three players as | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
well. I am honoured and humbled to be standing here at the moment and I | :04:32. | :04:34. | |
want to personally thank everyone who has come out for me and to thank | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
everyone who has supported the team of DUP candidates across the | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
province and beyond that, I want to thank everyone who has come out to | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
vote in this election and has shown support for the Democratic process | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
and the desire to see the restoration of the Assembly | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
structures. There is no mandate across Northern Ireland for direct | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
rule, no consensus for any end to local democracy and no desire to | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
silence our collective and distinctive Northern Ireland voice | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
at this critical time. The people have spoken. All public | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
representatives of goodwill must move forward into these negotiations | :05:15. | :05:21. | |
with a view to forming a Northern Ireland government and let us move | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
forward with hope, hope that the common good will be able to prevail | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
over narrow, divisive interests. Hope that civility can return to | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
politics, hope that a functioning Assembly can be restored and hope | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
that a Northern Ireland with so many overlapping cultural identities can | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
be home to all of us and all of our children and, indeed, the | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
generations to come. There is work to be done. Work to quickly meant | :05:51. | :05:57. | |
the relationships which have been frayed by the discord of this | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
election, work to improve our real lives with more and better jobs, | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
better Health Service and education system and better infrastructure and | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
the real issues that matter to people on a day by day basis. We go | :06:12. | :06:18. | |
to the table with a renewed mandate and I will guarantee for my part, a | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
willingness to meet those challenges, to seize the | :06:25. | :06:26. | |
opportunities, not for narrow political advantage but for | :06:27. | :06:29. | |
everybody in Northern Ireland. Thank you. | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
APPLAUSE Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
making her acceptance speech in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, she topped | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
the poll but regretting hugely the fact that running mate, Maurice | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
Morrow, did not make it home in this particular instance. There has been | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
a lot happening in the last hour, it is fair to say. We have lots of | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
graphics to bring us up-to-date with the story. Over to you, Mark. We are | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
more than halfway through! More than 50 seats, 53 seats in total, have | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
been filled. We can look at the virtual map. | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
We are hoping to show you the entire map, squeezing 18 constituents | :07:13. | :07:20. | |
together to make our own map and we can see from the colours spread | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
around the map, those constituencies have some seats filled, there are a | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
couple of exceptions. First, let us look at how the DUP are getting on | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
in Strangford because in some ways, this tells you the story of the | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
election within unionism. As we know, there are three outgoing DUP | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
ministers running. How many are back? We can see Shell Michael Green | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
is back, Simon Hamilton is back and were told that Peter Weir, even | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
though he has been parachuted from neighbouring North Down, is almost | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
certain to get back. In a sense this is the story of the election, Perot | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
like Nesbitt at the bottom, small consolation being re-elected but it | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
looks like there are going to be three DUP back in in Strangford | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
despite all of the problems the DUP have had and the story of the | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
election, the Alliance doing well in Strangford. Not everyone has filled | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
their seat belt, North Antrim has got one, East Londonderry do not | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
have any, some people are comparing this to blockbusters. How dare they! | :08:30. | :08:37. | |
They must be over 40! North Belfast, they do not have anybody elected but | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
I am told it will be soon. We can look at the neighbouring | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
constituency, West Belfast, and again, one of the stories of this | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
election, look at the number of Sinn Fein MLAs elected. Yes, Gerry | :08:50. | :08:57. | |
Carroll got back for People Before Profit but where is the SDLP's Alex | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
Attwood? Nowhere to be seen. Older viewers will remember Joe Hendron | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
topping the poll in the Westminster election back in 1992, seeing off | :09:07. | :09:13. | |
Gerry Adams. Those days are definitely over for the best LP. The | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
new political map is starting to take shape. As you can see, lots of | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
seats still to be filled. It is going to be a long night! It looks | :09:24. | :09:25. | |
fantastic! What is at the top of those stairs | :09:26. | :09:35. | |
behind you? Do you know what? We will show you at the end of the | :09:36. | :09:41. | |
night. Can you just dander up then? If people children after 11 o'clock! | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
We will hold you do not -- to that! Becky! Mark Simpson with the | :09:47. | :09:56. | |
numbers. -- thank you. Are you on course for eight seats? We are still | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
in contention although less so than about one hour ago in South Down. | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
And we are the runner-up in north Belfast so that is the second time | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
we have been runner-up there in eight months, even though we managed | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
to add to the vote, it was not enough on this occasion. That was | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
Nuala McAllister? Yes, the runner-up and next to that, Nelson McCausland. | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
What about predictions for the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP? | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
Alex reckons the Ulster Unionists cannot get any more than ten? We | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
don't have a figure on the SDLP. We'll both parties be significantly | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
down? Even allowing for Assembly triggered? That doesn't have the | :10:42. | :10:48. | |
case, if the Ulster Unionists, if we maintain our position we would be on | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
seven so if the Ulster Unionists did the same they would have 12 or 13 | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
and they will be below that and similarly with the SDLP, although | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
they are helped slightly in South Down at our expense because | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
whichever of us does not take the final seat will be the runner-up so | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
that is a tussle for the last seat and that will help them. But not a | :11:09. | :11:16. | |
good collection for either party. Not as bad, I will be honest, as | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
Mike Nesbitt seems to think as it is for him and I was shocked at just | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
how swiftly he departed. It seems to be quite a remarkable decision to | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
have made so swiftly without talking to colleagues and the rest of it, it | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
seems quite a bizarre way to do things. Did he want to go at the | :11:36. | :11:43. | |
first sign he thinks would not be going in the way he hoped in his | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
head? I have to say yes, at the leaders debate before the election, | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
he did seem even then to have the demeanour of somebody who felt | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
defeated so from that perspective I don't think he had a happy election. | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
We have fought really good campaigns and have enjoyed the campaigns and | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
have been gutted when we get to the count centre. It happens to all of | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
us. But I do not think he had a good campaign, he did not feel confident | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
going into the election or throughout. It has left him in a | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
difficult position. They have lost three out of the four women they had | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
in the election, that is a big blow, and they have lost Danny Kennedy, | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
who was probably the most obvious person to take over as leader if | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
Mike Nesbitt stood aside. That is a huge loss. And to the Assembly. I | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
was his vice chair in the OFMDFM committee days in the Assembly and I | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
have huge respect and affection for Danny Kennedy, he is a gentleman and | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
I am genuinely sorry to see him going because he has a great sense | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
of humour and somebody who I think will be a great loss to the chamber. | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
You will have felt the same thing, working with him in the role | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
speaker. Somebody who genuinely could bring wit and humour to the | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
role he had. And he will be a great loss to the party and the Assembly. | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
Stay with us. Tom Elliott joins us from the Fermanagh-South Tyrone | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
count in. You were in Belfast earlier today. You have made the | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
journey back home. West of the river bank. What do you make of the | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
picture unfolding tonight? We know all of the seats have been declared | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and Arlene Foster topped the poll, Maurice | :13:36. | :13:42. | |
Morrow did not make it, any relief that Rosemary Barton held onto her | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
seat? It is a tribute to Rosemary, she is a hard worker on the ground, | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
she gets around a lot of issues and I am pleased that she has made it. | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
Clearly within that there are casualties and I am sorry to see | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
Maurice Morrow going, he is a stalwart of the Assembly. Richie | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
McPhillips was making a huge contribution also but unfortunately | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
that is politics. The biggest casualty is your party leader, Mike | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
Nesbitt, who has fallen on his sword. Some people are effectively | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
describing this as a pre-emptive strike. Did he really need to do | :14:20. | :14:27. | |
that quite so soon? I am not sure of the entire circumstances because I | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
was not aware of it but he has taken that decision in a very emotional | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
time. You're not even at the end of the election count but clearly he | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
has taken that decision at an early stage, he feels that it was a poor | :14:41. | :14:48. | |
result, not what he was anticipating what was calculating. It is a | :14:49. | :14:54. | |
difficult time and I just hope that himself and the family can spend | :14:55. | :14:57. | |
some time together that he may be did not have the opportunity to do | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
over the last five years. You have been in a difficult situation as the | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
leader of the party and Alex Kane earlier said that it is not an easy | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
party to lead because in a sense, it looks in two directions, one way and | :15:13. | :15:22. | |
the other. Here is the point... Mike Nesbitt has made a decision to go. | :15:23. | :15:29. | |
And people are not quite clear by he has made that decision. And they are | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
not quite sure what he believed whenever he said in interviews, that | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
the Ulster Unionist Party would come back as the biggest unionist party. | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
Was he just talking things up or did he actually believe that? When you | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
are in an election campaign, you do your best to try to rally the troops | :15:49. | :15:53. | |
and get people behind you and get people to support you. That is what | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
you do. Every party does that. Mike made the calculation that he would | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
like to come back with more seats than he did and he just feels, I am | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
sure, that he has not lived up to expectation. It was a very brave | :16:08. | :16:17. | |
decision. Visit? If you wildly over claim when you rally the troops, the | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
difficulty is, you back yourself into a corner because even though | :16:23. | :16:25. | |
you might not have done very badly, you look like a failure, condemned | :16:26. | :16:33. | |
by your own expectations? Yes but I do keep saying, in the election | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
campaign you do the best for the party and you try to get people to | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
come behind you and you will not go on the Trail and say, we will lose | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
all of the seats. You try to make the best of it. And Mike feels he | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
has not been able to make the best of it and I am sure he would have | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
been more contented baby if it was not the largest party but if he had | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
more seats and at least kept the seats that we did that. He has taken | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
the decision, was a brave? Nothing is easy. There been a brave but not | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
easy. And filled with an emotionally charged evening. And I hope that he | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
can have some peace and tranquillity in the days ahead. | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
Thank you very much, next time I want your prediction as to who the | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
next leader will be. I presume you won't be throwing your hat in the | :17:30. | :17:32. | |
ring for another go? I would suggest you are presuming right, Mark. Fair | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
enough. Can't say I am surprised. Tom, thank you very much. Let's hear | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
from Doleres Kelly from Upper Bann. SDLP candidate. Good to see you. | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
Doesn't seem so long since we were having a conversation in which we | :17:48. | :17:55. | |
were discussing the end of your political career. It looks like | :17:56. | :17:58. | |
maybe you are about to come back from the dead. Rumours of my death | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
have been much false as Mark Twain said. It is looking very positive. | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
More or less I think Sinn Fein have conceded. They are doing the surplus | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
at the moment. But I think I am on target to be indeed back in the | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
Assembly. So, three MLAs have been returned for Upper Bann. You are in | :18:20. | :18:25. | |
a scrap for the final seat with Sinn Fein's Nuala Toman. Can you give us | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
a sense of how the transfers are looking? Do you reckon you have it | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
in the bag, is it a possibility or a probability probableability? It's a | :18:35. | :18:37. | |
probableability at this stage. I think I am over 1,000 in front. And | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
there is even Beattie surplus distributed at the moment and I am | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
ahead on those. Any idea when that declaration is likely to be made and | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
when you are confirmed as an MLA once again? I would hope within the | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
next 20 minutes or so. Yes, we are progressing quite well here in Upper | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
Bann for a change. It's always been a rollercoaster, doesn't matter if | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
it's over one day or two, it's always a difficult time. Sometime | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
within the next 20-30 minutes it will be confirmed as having retaken | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
the seat. We will hold our congratulations until it is | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
official. Let me ask you, sorry to bring this up... It ain't over until | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
it's over, that's for sure. There was controversy in the press during | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
the campaign about the inappropriateness in inverted xhas | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
of you receiving a significant pay-off, I think last May when you | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
lost your seat. And you hold on to that money but you are running | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
again. Where are we with that and if you do indeed win the seat does that | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
make you uncomfortable? Well, Mark, can I just say what makes me | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
uncomfortable is how I have been singled out for a particular type of | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
rumour and almost slander and defamation of my own good character. | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
I didn't receive all of that sum of money. A lot was spent on the | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
rundown of my office and my staff pay-offs. I also would have to say | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
that I don't know why I was treated differently to any other MLAs who | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
lost or retired last year. Nor indeed those other MLAs or MPs or | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
MEPs who stood down from other parliaments and took seats in other | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
parliaments, not only in this jurisdiction but elsewhere and the | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
same question and the same hints of scandal weren't thrown at them. | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
Today I am going... Just to be clear, nothing defamatory in what I | :20:30. | :20:32. | |
am saying to you and the reason I am talking is because I am interviewing | :20:33. | :20:35. | |
you at the moment, I don't know if you were singled out but you are one | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
of the MLAs who stood for election once again. The point was made about | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
John Dallat as well. He is not I think - I think he has been elimb | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
Nat Nated in East Londonderry -- eliminated. But you understand why I | :20:50. | :20:51. | |
am asking you because we are having a conversation and it looks like you | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
are about to win your seat again. There was a public debate about the | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
appropriateness of you holding on to that money. I am just asking if you | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
are comfortable with that. I think that's a fair question. Well, I | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
think what is a fair question is the whole principle of severance | :21:08. | :21:10. | |
payments to all parment tarrians and that's a debate to be had, not only | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
with me but with the Assembly and in other parliaments. Right. I have | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
news for you. You might be a little bit annoyed for asking that question | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
but I can tell you formally officially you are an MLA you have | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
been returned because my little screen has got a green tick beside | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
your name. Maybe you will forgive me that rudeness. Wonderful news. How | :21:32. | :21:38. | |
do you feel, congratulations. Thank you very much, Mark. It's just | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
wonderful U I didn't expect to be back here and I want to thank my | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
marvellous campaign team that worked really hard. I want to say a | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
particular thanks to each and every voter in Upper Bann who came out for | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
the SDLP, who put their faith in the SDLP and me to represent them again | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
in this constituency, thank you all. Well, genuine congratulations. That | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
brought a mile to your face, I have to say. -- a smile to your face. You | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
can go and celebrate. No chat we will chat again soon. Thank you for | :22:08. | :22:10. | |
your time. Good talking to you, Mark. Good to | :22:11. | :22:17. | |
talk to you, as well. Fionnuala, nonetheless delighted to be | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
returned. Must have been delightful, I believe Nuala Toman rused to work | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
in Brid Rodgers office, maybe a long time ago and to be in a run-off with | :22:28. | :22:34. | |
her for the seat must have been something. Apparently. Do you know | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
if that's the case? I wasn't aware of that. It was a long time ago. I | :22:38. | :22:44. | |
know Nuala, she never mentioned that. It may have been at school. | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
May have been a holiday job but she did apparently work for sometime. | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
She is Sinn Fein through and through. There was a tight fight at | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
the end. She didn't make it. First of all, I would congratulate | :22:57. | :23:03. | |
Dolores, it is tough coming back having lost her seat and also John | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
O'Dowd but Nuala Toman polled very well. She should be very proud. She | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
was in 4th place in terms of first preference votes. 6100. She didn't | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
pick up the transfers to bring her home. An excellent first preference | :23:20. | :23:27. | |
vote. And replacing an effective and popular person in Katherine Sealey | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
who is popular. She's gone back to teaching. A loss I think to Sinn | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
Fein. A lot of people feel a loss to Sinn Fein and a loss to politics | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
because she was articulate and had things to say and a fresh | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
perspective. No matter what you think about Sinn Fein's position on | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
things. A lot of people liked the fact she brought something new to | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
the table. Here is the interesting thing about that. She wonder if that | :23:51. | :23:57. | |
says something about a young person's commitment to politics or a | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
young person's view of what politics has to offer and where politics is | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
going here at the moment. Well, first of all, I think the school is | :24:08. | :24:12. | |
lucky to have Cat because she's a really good teacher and as a former | :24:13. | :24:17. | |
Education Minister looking at raising standards and tackling | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
underachievement I know that is Cat's goal in a disadvantaged area. | :24:21. | :24:24. | |
In terms of young people and politics, of course young people | :24:25. | :24:26. | |
raise questions but look at the number of young people that have put | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
themselves forward. That don't know what's going to happen next week or | :24:31. | :24:33. | |
the week after. You take the point, she was in the Assembly for a matter | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
of months, she had an opportunity to get her feet under the table. People | :24:40. | :24:41. | |
thought she had something to offer and she was there, got a feel of it | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
and decided you know what, I am not going to bother, I will go back to | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
teaching. That sends out a negative message about politics. Well, yeah, | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
but politics doesn't have to be for life. I think that we have to | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
change... Often it's for more than eight months. We have to dhang the | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
way we think about things. If you go into a job and don't like the job, | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
then you change it. People should be entitled to. But look at Megan | :25:08. | :25:15. | |
Fearon, she's 25 years of age and in her third - won two elections and | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
was co-opted in one. There are young people who stayed on and young women | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
who stayed on. Politics is a tougher game for women than men, I don't | :25:23. | :25:29. | |
care what anyone says. Loads of other, Elisha McCallion, Sinead, | :25:30. | :25:32. | |
Nichola Mallon, all the different women that have gone forward again. | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
I think what we have to do is make it a better place for women and men. | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
Also you doint have to stay there for life as I know. Yes, you bailed | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
out a relatively young age it has to be said. A lot were surprised you | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
decided to go. Well, yeah, I have probably a different view. I have | :25:51. | :25:53. | |
done different things from being a professional tennis player, to being | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
an act srifs in the third world to a human rights activist, 14 years in | :26:00. | :26:05. | |
poll tishgs, four terms. You are not going to go back to being a senior | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
tour tennis player. I am probably old for that now. It's good to have | :26:09. | :26:11. | |
change and to have younger people in. I am glad I could use my | :26:12. | :26:18. | |
experience to get a younger woman like Sinead in and in in style. We | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
are going to look at pictures of Arlene Foster leaving the count | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
centre in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone. There she is heading out in | :26:30. | :26:32. | |
the dark. Seems to have dried up down there in that part of the | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
world. She's getting into her Land Rover there. She has a fair bit of | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
security around her. She's heading off. She chose not to speak to the | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
BBC on this occasion. With any luck we will catch a word with her | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
tomorrow. There is Maurice Morrow who was unsuccessful. Arlene Foster | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
referred to Lord Morrow as her mentor. Difficult for him. I suppose | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
a bit of a mixed night for Arlene Foster. She will be genuinely | :27:04. | :27:09. | |
personally dispointed he is not back. When you run as a candidate | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
the thing that's worse than losing your own seat is watching your | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
running mate go out because actually particularly if you have done well | :27:20. | :27:22. | |
as Arlene did in terms of topping the poll, to see the person you ran | :27:23. | :27:26. | |
with, your colleague who supported you, to see them go out, it's a very | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
painful experience. I am fortunate enough while I was here I saw my | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
running mate flash up on the screen as elect. I am relieved about that | :27:34. | :27:39. | |
because Chris polled really strongly and I am delighted to see Chris | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
Lytlle back in. We were delighted last time to get two Alliance people | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
elected we didn't get the third. It's gutting when that happens | :27:50. | :27:52. | |
because you desperately want to see the whole team over the line and | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
it's very difficult and it's hard when you see it happen to somebody | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
else, it's easier to deal with in some ways when it is yourself. OK. | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
Let's talk to Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist from North Antrim. | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
He joins us from the count there in Ballymena. You have been returned. | :28:12. | :28:16. | |
The second candidate in North Antrim to be returned. First of all, | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
congratulations to you on a personal basis because a lot of people said | :28:22. | :28:24. | |
that you might have a bit of a struggle to hang on to a seat there | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
but you have done it and done it comfortably. Well, I think that was | :28:29. | :28:36. | |
what the local papers were having, when you were talking to David | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
McIlveen the other night, describing me as the underdog. I have increased | :28:42. | :28:49. | |
my vote from May from 4400 to over 6,000 so a 36% increase in the | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
Ulster Unionist vote is a great recommendation for the work that we | :28:54. | :28:56. | |
have been doing here. Just to be clear, the other candidate, is it | :28:57. | :29:03. | |
the case that the DUP will get two home in Paul Frew and will Philip | :29:04. | :29:09. | |
Logan lose out? It's looking like that at this moment. That seems to | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
be the lie of the land into the last stage here. Let me ask you about | :29:14. | :29:20. | |
your party. It's been a miserable night, according to Mike Nesbitt. | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
You will know that he has in rather dramatic fashion called a news | :29:25. | :29:27. | |
conference in East Belfast and announced that he is standing down | :29:28. | :29:32. | |
as leader of the Ulster Unionist party. He can not in all honesty, he | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
says, criticise other unionist leaders and then not deliver himself | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
in terms of what he had said the Ulster Unionist party would achieve. | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
Are you surprised, disappointed at his decision? I suppose one of the | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
first things Mike did as leader was appoint me Chief Whip and what I | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
have come to know from working with the man, if he commits himself to | :29:57. | :30:01. | |
something he sees it threw and Mike always said his measure of | :30:02. | :30:04. | |
leadership will be about what he achieves and how he achieves it. In | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
his comments today and the reasons that he has stood down I think it | :30:09. | :30:13. | |
shows the leadership quality of Mike Nesbitt. He's taken that personal | :30:14. | :30:20. | |
stand, what he has committed to he didn't achieve in this election and | :30:21. | :30:23. | |
he is standing by his word and that's what I found out about Mike | :30:24. | :30:26. | |
Nesbitt, he is a man of his word and he will honour that. Here is the bad | :30:27. | :30:30. | |
news for you, I spoke to Doug Beattie, who was successful in Upper | :30:31. | :30:33. | |
Bann and asked if his name would be in the frame for the leadership | :30:34. | :30:36. | |
whenever Mike Nesbitt finally stands down and he said absolutely not. The | :30:37. | :30:41. | |
man for the job is Robin Swann in North Antrim. He is the man I think | :30:42. | :30:45. | |
at this stage I would back for it. Are you up for it? Well, look, I | :30:46. | :30:51. | |
don't know, I know Doug maybe told the BBC that, I don't know if he | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
spoke to my wife yet, that's where a lot of the decisions have to be made | :30:56. | :30:58. | |
for me first of all. We are a Democratic Party. We are going into | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
our AGM in a few weeks. How that falls out, I think will be decided | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
by the party officers. We are a party that represents one member, | :31:08. | :31:09. | |
one vote and it's down to the membership of our party who will | :31:10. | :31:14. | |
lead us, it's the done by MLAs or MPs or by a council, it's done by | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
the membership. It's not been a great night. Danny Kennedy is out. | :31:20. | :31:25. | |
Joanne Dobson is out. Philip Smith is out. Sandra Overend is | :31:26. | :31:30. | |
struggling. Those are big names, significant figures within your | :31:31. | :31:32. | |
party at Stormont who are not going to play a part next week or next | :31:33. | :31:39. | |
month. Well, the names you mentioned, I think maybe, and they | :31:40. | :31:42. | |
are a loss to the Ulster Unionist Assembly team, they're also a loss | :31:43. | :31:45. | |
to the Northern Ireland Assembly because some names you mentioned | :31:46. | :31:53. | |
there, Joanne Dobson and her organ donation bill, the work Danny | :31:54. | :31:56. | |
Kennedy did, they're big losses to the Assembly. It's something we have | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
seen from the reduction to five seats and the increased quotas, as | :32:02. | :32:04. | |
well. I think the loss of those unionist seats are down to an | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
increased Sinn Fein vote and that's what we are seeing across Northern | :32:10. | :32:11. | |
Ireland. I think one of the things you are not balancing that with is | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
the success we have had in John Stewart and taking a Sinn Fein seat | :32:17. | :32:20. | |
in East Antrim. OK, thank you very much indeed. Have | :32:21. | :32:23. | |
a word with your wife and let us know if she says you are allowed to | :32:24. | :32:26. | |
put your name forward for the leadership in due course. We would | :32:27. | :32:30. | |
be interested in having a conversation with you about that. | :32:31. | :32:34. | |
I want to hear Alex's thoughts in a second, before that I want to go | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
over to Tara at the Titanic exhibition centre to hear what is | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
happening there. It's getting late in the night. What | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
is the mood It is fair to say that all of the | :32:48. | :32:57. | |
politicians and party workers are exhausted at this stage because they | :32:58. | :33:02. | |
have had a long day yesterday and a very long couple of weeks, two | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
elected with me and one hopeful. Clare Bailey from the Green Party | :33:08. | :33:13. | |
and Paula Bradley from the DUP. Chris, congratulations. Are you | :33:14. | :33:18. | |
pleased with the Alliance vote? It is a good day. Delighted to have | :33:19. | :33:25. | |
such assault -- strong showing of support, one and two in East Belfast | :33:26. | :33:29. | |
and that is a huge privilege to serve East Belfast and we are | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
delighted they want to see a united community, they want effectiveness | :33:35. | :33:39. | |
and power-sharing government and that is what myself and Naomi Long | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
will be working to achieve. Looking at some of the pictures of the | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
announcement. What can you say to those people who voted for Alliance? | :33:49. | :33:54. | |
I asked Naomi Long about the possibility of nonexecutive seat but | :33:55. | :34:00. | |
do you think it is time to stay as opposition and consolidate that | :34:01. | :34:05. | |
position? We need to see the final numbers and we have clear issues | :34:06. | :34:09. | |
that we will assess whether or not to take any position or to continue | :34:10. | :34:17. | |
to hold the Executive to account. We have had strong leadership from | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
individual MLAs on integrated education, health and other issues | :34:23. | :34:26. | |
and we think we will be an effective party with the strong mandate we | :34:27. | :34:30. | |
have been given. Will there be different decisions to be made next | :34:31. | :34:35. | |
time around? There will be constituencies you will look at, | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
perhaps in Strangford putting up two candidates? We talk to the Alliance | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
all the time about this breakthrough and breaking away from East? Naomi | :34:46. | :34:51. | |
Long had a very clear aim to build the base across Northern Ireland and | :34:52. | :34:56. | |
we have had strong performances, in South Down, Patrick Brown was close | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
to securing a seat and we have had a very good turnout today, our biggest | :35:02. | :35:07. | |
vote across Northern Ireland in 30 years, our biggest ever Assembly | :35:08. | :35:13. | |
result in South Belfast. We have some capable candidates across | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
Northern Ireland and are very mobilised membership with good | :35:18. | :35:19. | |
support from people in the community. Clare Bailey, you are | :35:20. | :35:27. | |
hopeful to get through? Yes and I am thrilled because I was only elected | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
back in May for the first time so it has been a short period I have held | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
the office. To see the increase in the vote this time around has been | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
heartening and Steven Agnew is looking very solid in North Down. A | :35:42. | :35:48. | |
good day for the Green Party, we have increased first preference | :35:49. | :35:50. | |
votes and we are looking likely to hold onto both seats. Going around | :35:51. | :35:55. | |
the doors, what was that down to? People Before Profit have only one | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
and from their point of view you want to hold onto two, what is the | :36:01. | :36:07. | |
difference? Are the people younger, the younger demographic? We appeal | :36:08. | :36:13. | |
across the board. We have younger activists in the party in terms of | :36:14. | :36:18. | |
membership but when we're on the door is canvassing and speaking to | :36:19. | :36:21. | |
people, it is our response right across and we started this time at | :36:22. | :36:28. | |
the Belfast City Centre of South Belfast and worked our way right | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
through the constituency into four wins, getting carried off, so it | :36:32. | :36:38. | |
comes from everywhere. We will see that in the transfers we get after | :36:39. | :36:44. | |
the first preferences. We are very transfer friendly, people like to | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
give us some support and once we have earned their trust we will see | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
that they usually stick with us. Paula, congratulations, the first in | :36:54. | :37:01. | |
North Belfast. Absolutely, I am delighted to be the first in North | :37:02. | :37:06. | |
Belfast and the first unionist in the entire Belfast constituency. | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
After last, we had to wait such a long time to get to the stage. It is | :37:12. | :37:15. | |
bittersweet personally because of what happened to Nelson McCausland? | :37:16. | :37:22. | |
Yes, there is no doubt about that, we will miss him greatly as part of | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
the MLA team, he will always be there for advice because he is a | :37:27. | :37:31. | |
mine of knowledge but that has taken the shine off. On the other side, | :37:32. | :37:36. | |
our vote has held in North Belfast, my personal vote has increased so | :37:37. | :37:42. | |
that is a positive or so. Talking to yourself and Diane Dodds about | :37:43. | :37:49. | |
transfers and Mike Nesbitt has resigned as party leader, but some | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
of those transfers that did go elsewhere in North Belfast, | :37:55. | :37:56. | |
potentially they have cost Nelson his seat? We need to look at those | :37:57. | :38:03. | |
figures in greater detail. But I know by looking at the entire | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
province, some of those transfers have hurt the DUP greatly from the | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
Ulster Unionist Party. In North Belfast I know that quite a | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
proportion of Robert Foster's transfers went to the Alliance Party | :38:18. | :38:22. | |
and the SDLP. Chris will not complain! No, he will not! In terms | :38:23. | :38:28. | |
of the overall picture for the DUP, what is your hope for an Executive | :38:29. | :38:33. | |
and the Assembly running again, given the stalemate over Arlene | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
Foster? My hope, and I went to the doors and what I said was I want to | :38:39. | :38:42. | |
be back at work, doing the job I enjoy, I want to be back as part of | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
the ruling of Northern Ireland and I hope whenever we go back we will be | :38:48. | :38:52. | |
part of those negotiations, to get things back, up and running again. | :38:53. | :38:57. | |
Whether that will happen, I do not know but I have to be positive. Has | :38:58. | :39:03. | |
this been nerve-racking for you? I asked the others as well, in terms | :39:04. | :39:08. | |
of a personal level, you are the MLA, you have been a mLA for quite a | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
long time, were you thinking about the future? Absolutely. You take | :39:15. | :39:22. | |
nothing for granted in this job. We have mortgages and children to look | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
after, things that everyone else in society has and it is emotionally | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
draining. Absolutely emotionally dreading. I very much look forward | :39:33. | :39:38. | |
to a very quiet weekend! The same question to both of you... Sleepless | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
nights? I am extremely tired but you take great encouragement from the | :39:45. | :39:47. | |
people who give you their vote and they want you to get on with the job | :39:48. | :39:50. | |
at the Assembly, it is huge privilege we have as a result of | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
this and I am looking forward to getting back and working on the | :39:55. | :39:57. | |
issues people want to see us working on. Are you keeping fingers crossed? | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
Yes, indeed. And I think the energy that comes from the campaign, with | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
everybody rallying behind you and supporting you and in South Belfast | :40:08. | :40:14. | |
we had support from across the island, the Green Party in Scotland, | :40:15. | :40:19. | |
Dublin, Glasgow, they came here to support us and you get energy from | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
that. Thank you, all three of you. Back to Mark. Interesting to see | :40:25. | :40:30. | |
some smiling around the table, people happy. Naomi Long happy to | :40:31. | :40:37. | |
see Chris Lyttle home and dry. The final result for Mid Ulster, Patsy | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
McGlone has taken the fifth seat at the expense of the Ulster Unionist | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
Party's Sandra Overend, she sighed and Patsy McGlone is safe. He was | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
predicting that 40 minutes ago. I want to talk to Fionnuala about a | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
couple of things, about how you read the Sinn Fein and the SDLP result. | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
Is Sinn Fein's result as good as some people are suggesting and the | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
SDLP vote as bad? Sinn Fein's is as good and the SDLP's not as bad. Sinn | :41:14. | :41:22. | |
Fein is masked by the DUP result, which is better than some people | :41:23. | :41:25. | |
thought, it was always going to be very good, they have had more than | :41:26. | :41:31. | |
the odd bad reverse and Arlene Foster clearly has not recovered her | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
equilibria with you guys but Sinn Fein's result has coasted past in | :41:37. | :41:43. | |
the midst of that. Those various trios of successes, which are quite | :41:44. | :41:49. | |
remarkable. Because they are hard to like and so bumptious in so many | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
ways, it is hard for us to give them credit for this. Having said that, I | :41:55. | :42:00. | |
think they got away with murder, oops, must not say that! They got | :42:01. | :42:08. | |
away with some fraud, on a big skill in West Belfast, going out to get | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
People Before Profit on the Brexit issue. By not exerting themselves | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
one bed or spending very much money to combat Brexit. They have knocked | :42:17. | :42:24. | |
People Before Profit back? Eamonn McCann will not keep his seat in | :42:25. | :42:27. | |
Foyle and Gerry Carroll has not done as well. They came out punching, I | :42:28. | :42:36. | |
have to watch my verbs... They came out in strength, saturating | :42:37. | :42:40. | |
doorsteps in West Belfast, to knock the stuffing out of People Before | :42:41. | :42:43. | |
Profit and they did that mainly on the Brexit issue and that was such a | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
fraud because they were not exercised on Brexit, they were like | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
Jeremy Corbyn, and the other fraudulent, of these are fraud in | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
any sense that you need to worry, they would say it is not defamatory, | :42:59. | :43:03. | |
it was on the public enquiry issue... They will bang on about the | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
public enquiry that will examine all of these issues and adjudicate and | :43:10. | :43:14. | |
find the truth. They opposed the public enquiry to the very last | :43:15. | :43:18. | |
minute. You mean smoke and mirrors when you say fraud? More smoke than | :43:19. | :43:26. | |
anything else. And they got away with it because Arlene Foster | :43:27. | :43:29. | |
brought out the vote by being obnoxious and because they mustered | :43:30. | :43:34. | |
themselves and went all for it, hell for leather, and did very well. It | :43:35. | :43:41. | |
is fair to say that Sinn Fein did support the public enquiry quite | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
late on and Mairtin O'Muilleoir but that in place but not long before | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
they were against it? They took their sweet time and we still do not | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
know why. The SDLP did not have as bad a time as they could have and | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
they deserve that, they deserved to have done better because they fought | :44:00. | :44:05. | |
a very good fight in many ways. And it was sad and ironic in some way to | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
see them fighting the good fight with young candidates, having looked | :44:10. | :44:16. | |
grizzled for so long and we mocked them for saying we deserve better | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
than this. They pulled themselves together and they had very good | :44:21. | :44:23. | |
young candidates and Colum Eastwood find his feet and his voice in the | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
last debate he was very good and I have not been impressed by him | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
before that at all. I could see he was a nice fellow, he looked well | :44:33. | :44:37. | |
and sound good but not strong. And partly because problem remains for | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
them, what I therefore? What is their selling point? Nichola | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
Mallon... A very good performer but what are their selling? And they | :44:49. | :44:53. | |
have to find a place to stand, something to be. They went for | :44:54. | :45:00. | |
opposition and that was a mistake. I think. And I can see where they do | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
that, they would dam declared dead and they did not. And they went for | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
that with Mike Nesbitt and he blew it. That is not to say that if he | :45:10. | :45:16. | |
did not blow it it would have worked well, it probably would not have and | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
it was doubtful if he could have sold that to the Ulster Unionists, a | :45:21. | :45:24. | |
party that is unreadable and barely exists as a party. Naomi Long, very | :45:25. | :45:31. | |
quickly, what about where the Alliance Party will be once we get | :45:32. | :45:36. | |
through these talks, if Stormont gets up and running? If you are | :45:37. | :45:40. | |
entitled to a position in the Executive, would you take that? In | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
theory, yes, but in the right count of Executive. What does that mean? | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
We spilled the site in detail last time, we said that if the parties in | :45:52. | :45:55. | |
the Executive were willing to do with getting rid of the petition of | :45:56. | :45:58. | |
concern, in terms of limitations on when it could be used, dealing with | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
integrated education and doing something about that, dealing with | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
division and reinvesting that so we set those five things out clearly. | :46:08. | :46:14. | |
That has not changed? They have not because those things have unpacked | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
this Executive, the scandals were around money being channelled into | :46:19. | :46:21. | |
paramilitary organisations through the Executive, if you look at RHI, | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
the lack of openness and transparency and accountability so | :46:27. | :46:29. | |
all of the issues we were raising... In fact, the anger you see from Sinn | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
Fein in many ways stems from the fact that DUP arrogance was built on | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
the back that they could wipe everybody else out with the petition | :46:40. | :46:43. | |
of concern and for that reason, they will have to be addressed and we | :46:44. | :46:46. | |
will have to see an attitude change. Very quickly, would you be | :46:47. | :46:53. | |
optimistic, and you have listened to a lot of people have said in 12 | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
hours, would you be optimistic, seriously, but at the end of this, | :46:59. | :47:02. | |
in weeks or months, the DUP and Sinn Fein, both parties having done | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
pretty well, we'll be able to get things together to work in an | :47:07. | :47:10. | |
Executive, perhaps with the support of the Alliance Party and start | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
moving things forward? Are you optimistic they can back themselves | :47:15. | :47:15. | |
out of the corners they have We have seen them do remarkable | :47:16. | :47:28. | |
u-turns in the past. You mentioned the public inquiry, you could smell | :47:29. | :47:32. | |
the burning rubber as they were making u-turns in the last week to | :47:33. | :47:35. | |
grasp the issue of the public inquiry. When people say it's not | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
going to happen, it's never going to happen, it's a meaningless exercise | :47:40. | :47:42. | |
because five minutes later they're saying the opposite. I think we need | :47:43. | :47:46. | |
to actually park what has been said in the election campaign, accept | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
that some of that was about electioneering and start to move | :47:51. | :47:53. | |
forward. I have to say I hope the DUP have listened carefully to what | :47:54. | :47:56. | |
happened because Sinn Fein did mobilise their vote, no question | :47:57. | :48:00. | |
about that. They did the work on the ground in West Belfast, but the | :48:01. | :48:05. | |
biggest recruiting agent for Sinn Fein in this election was Arlene | :48:06. | :48:08. | |
Foster. Every time she spoke, every time she acted she added fuel to the | :48:09. | :48:13. | |
fire and made it much more easy for Sinn Fein to gain ground in this | :48:14. | :48:17. | |
election than it would have been had she taken a different approach to | :48:18. | :48:20. | |
the election. I think it has backfired tremendously on them and I | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
would reckon there will be more than a few DUP people sitting at home | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
this evening wondering if they could not have handled RHI better and | :48:29. | :48:31. | |
avoided this election altogether. John, I will come to you in a | :48:32. | :48:35. | |
moment. I want to test the waters in some of our count centres and talk | :48:36. | :48:41. | |
first of all to Julian O'Neill in the Lagan Valley. What's happening? | :48:42. | :48:55. | |
Well, I think we are about to get what will be the final declaration | :48:56. | :48:59. | |
for South Down, Mark. I can hear it now. I haven't got the figures but I | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
believe that Colin McGrath of the SDLP has taken the 5th and final | :49:05. | :49:10. | |
seat. That means that there will be two SDLP MLAs elected in South Down | :49:11. | :49:21. | |
with two Sinn Fein MLAs, Sinead Ennis and kriz Hazzard and Jim Wells | :49:22. | :49:27. | |
of the DUP making it five in total. The loser in South Down was Harold | :49:28. | :49:32. | |
McKee of the Ulster Unionists. I hear applause which tells me there | :49:33. | :49:37. | |
is also going to be some action in Lagan Valley, we are one MLA across | :49:38. | :49:41. | |
the line. I am hearing that count, even though one is just across the | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
line, will conclude tonight so a lot of activity in Lagan valley very | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
soon. Thank you very much. | :49:51. | :49:58. | |
Let's hear from Julian Fowler keeping abreast of developments in | :49:59. | :50:02. | |
Omagh. Yes, Fermanagh South Tyrone have | :50:03. | :50:06. | |
packed up and the West Tyrone counters are also going home. Still | :50:07. | :50:11. | |
waiting for the final declaration and the final tally there, but we | :50:12. | :50:22. | |
are expecting three Sinn Fein, to be elected with the DUP's Tom Buchanan | :50:23. | :50:28. | |
and the SDLP's Daniel McCrossan picking up a final seat too. Ulster | :50:29. | :50:34. | |
Unionists will have dropped their seat. Previously held by Ross Hussey | :50:35. | :50:41. | |
who wasn't standing this time, replaced by a new candidate, Alicia | :50:42. | :50:50. | |
Clarke. It looks like they're down one here. Thank you very much. | :50:51. | :50:58. | |
Appreciate that. Let's hear from David Maxwell in | :50:59. | :51:01. | |
Belfast for us at the four Belfast counts at the Titanic Exhibition | :51:02. | :51:09. | |
Centre. Any news? Well, no new news. Nine candidates elected so far. 11 | :51:10. | :51:13. | |
still to go. We are halfway through. We expect the rest to come in | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
quickly, especially with regards to East Belfast and North Belfast. Two | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
to eliminate in East Belfast and one to eliminate in North Belfast before | :51:24. | :51:26. | |
we expect to be able to complete those counts. We have been told this | :51:27. | :51:30. | |
count will go on into the night and will be completed tonight. Still | :51:31. | :51:36. | |
interesting stories to be told here. The last seat battle in East Belfast | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
will likely be between Robin Newton, the former Speaker and David | :51:42. | :51:47. | |
Douglas, we expect John Kyle's transfers to decide that and they | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
will be redistributed soon. In South Belfast, again that's fascinating | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
for the last two seats it's going to come down to between Emma | :52:00. | :52:02. | |
Little-Pengelly, Chris Stalford and the Green Party's Clare Bailey. I | :52:03. | :52:07. | |
spoke to Clare, she's confident she can be returned in South Belfast. | :52:08. | :52:12. | |
But the fact remains that Michael Henderson, the UUP's candidate, when | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
he is eliminated, he has 4,000 votes, they'll transfer at full | :52:17. | :52:19. | |
value. They're likely to go to the DUP candidates, so the DUP could | :52:20. | :52:23. | |
potentially return both Emma Little-Pengelly and Christopher | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
Stalford in South Belfast. So, we wait to see that result. Could be | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
dramatic indeed. South Belfast shaping up to be very interesting. | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
Clare Bailey will be hugely disappointed if she doesn't retain | :52:36. | :52:37. | |
that seat. David, thank you very much. Let's go to Bangor, the North | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
Down and Strangford counts happening there. Steven Walker is there. Any | :52:43. | :52:48. | |
white smoke? Yes, here is some figures I would like to share with | :52:49. | :52:53. | |
you. Philip Smith from the Ulster Unionists was eliminated, his votes | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
have been transferred. 934 from Philip Smith have gone to the SDLP's | :53:00. | :53:08. | |
Joe Boyle. 910 to Peter Weir. Joe Boyle is 62 votes ahead, although | :53:09. | :53:12. | |
when they transfer Michelle McIlveen's surplus it looks as if | :53:13. | :53:17. | |
Peter Weir will get other the line. In the final stages here and also in | :53:18. | :53:22. | |
the final stages of North Down. I have been speaking to Steven AgNew | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
Of the Green Party. He hopes there will be a declaration by midnight. | :53:28. | :53:30. | |
The problem is he didn't specify which day. | :53:31. | :53:38. | |
Let's hope it's midnight tonight and not midnight tomorrow. I will not be | :53:39. | :53:42. | |
here at midnight tomorrow, that's for sure. The Green Party scrapping | :53:43. | :53:49. | |
for both of those seats, to be fair, Stephen Agnew is going to get that | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
seat in North Down, but maybe not for a while. Two counts in Foyle. | :53:54. | :54:01. | |
They're both really interesting. Yes, Mark, that's right. The count | :54:02. | :54:06. | |
is continuing apace here in the Foyle Arena for East Londonderry and | :54:07. | :54:09. | |
Foyle. East Londonderry is getting very interesting, more about that in | :54:10. | :54:16. | |
a moment. Clare Sugden, the outgoing justice Minister, has tweeted she's | :54:17. | :54:20. | |
been elected but nothing official yet. We are set to get some | :54:21. | :54:25. | |
announcement at 10pm, so perhaps confirmation of that. Nothing | :54:26. | :54:28. | |
official. It's looking like the DUP could lose a seat down from three to | :54:29. | :54:34. | |
two. The caveat is always that it has to play out. It really is down | :54:35. | :54:41. | |
to the wire. Sinn Fein should retain their existing seat. It's that last | :54:42. | :54:49. | |
seat that's proving very interesting and a great tussle with Sinn Fein | :54:50. | :54:59. | |
with Cathal OhOisin. He could be in the running for a second seat for | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
Sinn Fein. He is battling for that last seat with John Dallat, that | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
veteran SDLP member. He came back to fight this election, brought back by | :55:10. | :55:12. | |
the party. At one stage about two hours ago on the radio he conceded | :55:13. | :55:17. | |
and said that he wouldn't get elected. But there is life there | :55:18. | :55:23. | |
yet, he says. He said a few moments ago that he had written his | :55:24. | :55:27. | |
political obituary too early. All to play for in East Londonderry. | :55:28. | :55:33. | |
You see, the old PR system is a tricky one. Just when you think | :55:34. | :55:37. | |
somebody's down and out, they bounce back up off the canvas again. Thank | :55:38. | :55:42. | |
you very much. Let's talk to Ita in Newtownabbey | :55:43. | :55:48. | |
where counting is completed in the East Antrim and south Antrim | :55:49. | :55:54. | |
constituencies. Yes, indeed. The declarations are just being done | :55:55. | :55:58. | |
here behind me. South Antrim, a battle Royal for those last two | :55:59. | :56:02. | |
seats. Three DUP candidates were slugging it out between the two of | :56:03. | :56:07. | |
them, between themselves. The two successful new MLAs are Paul Girvan | :56:08. | :56:12. | |
and Pam Cameron. Trevor Clarke lost on his seat. South Antrim now is one | :56:13. | :56:21. | |
Sinn Fein, one Ulster Unionist, one Alliance, and two DUP. Two hours | :56:22. | :56:25. | |
earlier it all finished in the East Antrim constituency. The first four | :56:26. | :56:30. | |
announced were all sitting MLAs, Ulster Unionist Roy Beggs begs, | :56:31. | :56:36. | |
alliance Stewart Dickson, the DUP's David Hilditch and Gordon Lyons. | :56:37. | :56:40. | |
Then a surprise, on a day with little good news for the Ulster | :56:41. | :56:45. | |
Unionist party, UUP councillor John Stewart took the last seat there, | :56:46. | :56:50. | |
making it two in East Antrim for the Ulster Unionists. Sinn Fein's Oliver | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
McMullan lost his seat and the DUP dropped down from three to two. So | :56:56. | :56:59. | |
south and East Antrim all done and dusted here at the Valley Leisure | :57:00. | :57:04. | |
Centre. Thank you very much. All done and dusted as well in | :57:05. | :57:08. | |
Banbridge. What's the situation for Upper Bann | :57:09. | :57:13. | |
and Newry and ash mar? Yeah, that's right. We are packing up here in | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
Banbridge. We have had the final declaration from Upper Bann in the | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
last couple of minutes. It finished two DUP, one UUP, one Sinn Fein and | :57:24. | :57:28. | |
one SDLP. That's Dolores Kelly who is delighted to have won back a seat | :57:29. | :57:32. | |
she lost to Sinn Fein back in May 2016. There was a nice moment there | :57:33. | :57:38. | |
in the wrapping up speeches where the candidates give their thanks, | :57:39. | :57:42. | |
Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist candidate dedicated his victory to | :57:43. | :57:47. | |
his grandson Cameron who died around the time of the May 2016 election | :57:48. | :57:52. | |
and that was very warmly received by everyone in the room. Turning to | :57:53. | :57:55. | |
Newry and Armagh. It wrapped sometime ago. The big story was the | :57:56. | :58:01. | |
loss of the seat by Danny Kennedy. He said that his seat had been | :58:02. | :58:11. | |
washed away in the away -- we were the last count centre to wrap up | :58:12. | :58:14. | |
last time around. This time we are one of the first for which we will | :58:15. | :58:18. | |
be eternally grateful. Absolutely. Thank you very much. | :58:19. | :58:24. | |
Let's get a look at the state of the parties now with Mark Simpson. | :58:25. | :58:28. | |
It is starting to get really interesting. Around two-thirds of | :58:29. | :58:34. | |
the seats are now filled. The largest party is still Sinn Fein. | :58:35. | :58:39. | |
23 seats. How close are the DUP? Well, they've got 17 at the moment. | :58:40. | :58:43. | |
They got 38 last time. They want at least 30 this time. They look | :58:44. | :58:47. | |
unlikely to get it. What about the other parties? The | :58:48. | :58:51. | |
Ulster Unionists have only nine seats. That's why Mike Nesbitt has | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
quit. On the other side of the chamber, over there, we can see the | :58:56. | :59:00. | |
SDLP have seven seats so far. Speaking of seven seats, the | :59:01. | :59:04. | |
Alliance Party, in contrast, have had a good day, they've seven seats. | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
They only got eight last time. Two more other seats to tell you about, | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
Gerry Carroll from People Before Profit has been returned to Stormont | :59:14. | :59:18. | |
from West Belfast. And the independent Clare Sugdeen is back. | :59:19. | :59:21. | |
Those are the scores on the doors at the moment. All eyes on the front of | :59:22. | :59:26. | |
the chamber to see if the DUP can overtake Sinn Fein or could it even | :59:27. | :59:32. | |
be a draw? 28-28? We will have to wait and see. We will, thank you | :59:33. | :59:39. | |
very much. A quick word from John, what do you make of where we are and | :59:40. | :59:42. | |
particularly as far as the Ulster Unionists are concerned, there is | :59:43. | :59:46. | |
good news and bad news? That's the one gain, the Ulster Unionists have | :59:47. | :59:52. | |
had in East Antrim. It's the one bit of good news. The rest is pretty | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
grim. Holding on to Fermanagh South Tyrone was good news at the expense | :59:58. | :00:03. | |
of Lord Morrow, it's obviously difficult for any party losing | :00:04. | :00:08. | |
people. But some of those seats, but losing across the board losing | :00:09. | :00:11. | |
people like Danny Kennedy, a disaster. And their party leader, as | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
well. We will come back and talk to you later. For now, thank you very | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
much. That's it from us for now. We have had some shocks and surprises | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
through the day. The biggest casualty, curiously wasn't someone | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
who lost a seat, it was the Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt, he | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
fell on his sword at 8pm this evening saying he failed to | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
breakthrough and eat into the DUP vote. Despite the DUP success, the | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
partied did lose big names, Lord Morrow and of course Nelson | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
McCausland in North Belfast. Other big names taking a hit, the Ulster | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
Unionist Danny Kennedy, mentioned there by John. People Before | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Profit's Eamonn McCann. He said he was out, might not be out but it | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
looks like he is in a scrap for that last seat. And, of course, the | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
SDLP's Alex Attwood in West Belfast. However, there was good news for | :01:01. | :01:08. | |
Colum Eastwood with the political resurrection of Dolores Kelly. Sinn | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
Fein and the DUP will be the two largest parties with Arlene Foster | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
and Michelle O'Neill topping the poll in their own constituencies. We | :01:16. | :01:17. | |
are back at 10. 30pm. For now, bye. but the vast majority of people | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
in Northern Ireland Being a Muslim makes | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
everything easier for me. | :01:28. | :01:36. |