:00:00. > :00:00.the smallest margins. That is all from us. Now
:00:00. > :00:15.Good evening. Counting is still under way in the local district
:00:16. > :00:24.election. 462 seats are up for grabs in total in the 11 new super
:00:25. > :00:27.councils. Around a third of those seats have now been declared and the
:00:28. > :00:51.latest results look like this. Well the results are still coming in
:00:52. > :00:59.and our political reporter Stephen Walker has been following how the
:01:00. > :01:06.counts are unfolding. Waiting for the results became a family day out
:01:07. > :01:13.in some counting centres, 900 hopefuls were chasing 460 seats in
:01:14. > :01:18.11 district councils. Counting staff in Newtown at the proved to be the
:01:19. > :01:26.fastest. There it was a in Newtown at the proved to be the
:01:27. > :01:32.celebration as the DUP councillor became elected. In Lisbon and
:01:33. > :01:36.Castlereagh water ski champion Janet Rae was successful. I would like to
:01:37. > :01:42.represent people with disabilities and encourage young ones in sport am
:01:43. > :01:45.basically go out and make a difference in the community. Sinn
:01:46. > :01:52.Fein MP Francie Molloy was an interested observer here. We are
:01:53. > :02:08.going to overwhelmingly be the largest party. The results clearly
:02:09. > :02:13.suggest we are doing well. Claire Hanna will also return to the
:02:14. > :02:18.council chamber. I am really pleased, I have been working as hard
:02:19. > :02:27.as I can. There were changes, but I am pleased it has held up here.
:02:28. > :02:32.There were joys for Michael Long, despite fears the protest vote might
:02:33. > :02:37.affect him, he topped the poll in his area. I am absolutely
:02:38. > :02:41.delighted, it is a fantastic result for the Alliance party, for myself
:02:42. > :02:53.and my whole team. There was a lot of attention on Ni21's Miss
:02:54. > :03:00.Mackenzie, but she received just 236 preference votes. This political
:03:01. > :03:08.activist was once banned from the city centre... I was out protesting,
:03:09. > :03:13.campaigning for tuition fees to remain at the level that they were
:03:14. > :03:18.and they were increased. That shows that when people get organised and
:03:19. > :03:22.take to the streets, they can stop these measures being implemented. In
:03:23. > :03:29.Londonderry, scanners were implemented at the centre and it was
:03:30. > :03:33.admitted recent events have caused this party difficulties. The Ulster
:03:34. > :03:43.unionists were pleased with their vote here. We topped the poll is so
:03:44. > :03:49.obviously feel, especially in the west, the Ulster unionist party are
:03:50. > :03:56.doing very well. So far the TUV have won six seats. A picture is
:03:57. > :04:00.beginning to emerge of who the winners and losers are in this
:04:01. > :04:03.election, but it is only part of the story. It will be tomorrow afternoon
:04:04. > :04:14.before we get all of the results. The deputy leader of NI21 John
:04:15. > :04:17.McCallister has called on Basil McCrea to step down as party leader.
:04:18. > :04:20.It follows allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour made
:04:21. > :04:22.against Mr McCrea by a former party worker. Mr McCrea denies the
:04:23. > :04:33.allegations against him. Mark Simpson reports. When the new
:04:34. > :04:38.political party NI21 was launched, Basil McCrea promised a new era in
:04:39. > :04:45.politics. But less than a year later, the party is in turmoil.
:04:46. > :04:51.Basil McCrea is facing allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour.
:04:52. > :04:54.On BBC radio Ulster this morning he rejected the claims. The allegations
:04:55. > :05:02.were only brought to my attention last night and at first reading of
:05:03. > :05:08.them I can say that I deny them, but it is obviously an issue that I am
:05:09. > :05:12.going to have to deal with and one of the things I am looking at is how
:05:13. > :05:17.best to deal with the issues and this issue needs to be dealt with.
:05:18. > :05:19.It has led to a public fallout with deputy leader John McCallister. Last
:05:20. > :05:22.night John McCallister claimed that the party's sudden decision this
:05:23. > :05:32.week to scrap its Unionist designation was an attempt to force
:05:33. > :05:36.him out of the party. Tonight he called on his party leader to step
:05:37. > :05:44.down whilst the investigation is under way. It has been an
:05:45. > :05:48.extraordinary couple of days. It is difficult to imagine a worse set of
:05:49. > :05:54.circumstances for a new political party. It is hard to see how they
:05:55. > :05:59.now survive. I feel we have let down a lot of voters by having this right
:06:00. > :06:02.now. I am very hurt and shocked and devastated and I think Basil McCrea
:06:03. > :06:05.needs to have a fair process. It is important that people do not judge
:06:06. > :06:09.people until the opportunity comes to have all of the facts. This is
:06:10. > :06:16.the woman who made the allegations against Basil McCrea. Ashley Murray
:06:17. > :06:19.is a former party worker. She says the allegations go back to next year
:06:20. > :06:24.but says she hasn't gone to the police. He is respected politician
:06:25. > :06:28.with a lot of power behind them. Who's going to believe me? That is
:06:29. > :06:36.the way I saw it. Who will believe me? Why did you to going back to
:06:37. > :06:42.work? I needed the work. I left school with no qualifications and
:06:43. > :06:49.found it hard through employment. I needed to prove to myself that I
:06:50. > :06:55.could do this, I could go in to a place like Stormont and be an equal
:06:56. > :06:58.like they are. Basil McCrea was not available for a television interview
:06:59. > :07:07.but has repeatedly said he has done nothing wrong. Our political editor
:07:08. > :07:12.Mark Devenport joins me now. More dramatic developments tonight, but
:07:13. > :07:17.as far as the electoral performance are concerned, have NI21 shown any
:07:18. > :07:20.signs of connecting with the public? I don't think they have made the
:07:21. > :07:25.kind of breakthrough they were hoping for before the selection.
:07:26. > :07:32.Whether that as a result of this but publicity or not, it is not sure.
:07:33. > :07:37.Christina Dobson might be vying for a final seat in her area, otherwise
:07:38. > :07:47.we have seen Gina McKenzie eliminated and the other candidates
:07:48. > :07:51.not coming through. At this stage who are the winners and losers?
:07:52. > :07:55.Compared with the last local elections you can see that the TUV
:07:56. > :08:01.will be happy with their performance, as worldly Ulster
:08:02. > :08:06.unionists, the smaller parties, and UKIP, whereas the bigger parties DUP
:08:07. > :08:13.and Sinn Fein are slightly down, but that to some extent depends on the
:08:14. > :08:17.boxes and the particular areas where the votes have been counted already
:08:18. > :08:21.and we might have developments on that tomorrow. How long will the
:08:22. > :08:28.counting centres keep counting for this evening? It depends on each
:08:29. > :08:31.individual officer, if the end is in sight they will keep counting
:08:32. > :08:38.tonight but others will say let's call it a night. We can guess how
:08:39. > :08:44.some of the counts will work out tomorrow but we will not know for
:08:45. > :08:49.sure until tomorrow. A very busy weekend looking toward Monday as
:08:50. > :08:53.well. Yes, we have the European election to come and we will have to
:08:54. > :09:02.see whether for instance the TUV is doing well what the UUP performance
:09:03. > :09:07.is in comparison to this so sometimes it is broadly similar but
:09:08. > :09:13.there are always differences and we will discover that on Monday. Thank
:09:14. > :09:17.you. Rory McIlroy ended the day tied for
:09:18. > :09:20.fifth at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. It proved a bit of a
:09:21. > :09:24.roller-coaster ride for the Holywood man who had a rough start - this
:09:25. > :09:28.error leading to a double bogey six at the seventh hole. He was three
:09:29. > :09:31.over for the front nine and nearly missed the cut. However, this superb
:09:32. > :09:35.iron shot on the 12th prompted a turn around. He went on to birdie
:09:36. > :09:43.three of the last four holes to leave him well placed ahead of the
:09:44. > :09:47.weekend. Three over after the front nine wasn't so good but the
:09:48. > :09:53.conditions are really tricky out there. I feel like anything under
:09:54. > :09:59.par this morning was a decent score and to get in under par for the
:10:00. > :10:02.day, I am pleased with that. Onto the weekend weather forecast now,
:10:03. > :10:08.and with the details here's Geoff Maskell.
:10:09. > :10:19.We had a few showers across county down through this evening and as we
:10:20. > :10:23.going to -- go into tonight, we will have more organised rain with
:10:24. > :10:29.temperatures dipping down to seven or eight degrees. The rain will
:10:30. > :10:33.persist until dawn tomorrow. It means Saturday starts quite wet but
:10:34. > :10:39.the rain will move out of the way quite quickly and behind it we have
:10:40. > :10:43.a drier, brighter and warm day. What is driving that changes this low
:10:44. > :10:48.pressure system, and as it moves away we start to lose the effects of
:10:49. > :10:53.that low pressure and that is why our skies start to brighten up as we
:10:54. > :11:00.go through the day. The south of England by contrast is having a much
:11:01. > :11:05.wetter day of it on Saturday. Still some quite warm air there though.
:11:06. > :11:09.The Saturday afternoon, quite dry and bright picture across Northern
:11:10. > :11:14.Ireland, temperatures up to 15 degrees. As we go into the evening,
:11:15. > :11:20.we will start to see this guy is clouding over and some rain starting
:11:21. > :11:25.to work its way in. Sunday will be a grey and drizzly day to begin with,
:11:26. > :11:30.not as good as Saturday, although the temperatures are holding up
:11:31. > :11:34.quite well. Casting an eye towards bank holiday Monday, I think there
:11:35. > :11:40.is the reason for some optimism - some brighter spells in amongst the
:11:41. > :11:50.showers. Our election coverage will continue
:11:51. > :11:55.tomorrow afternoon at five past two, meanwhile you can keep up to date
:11:56. > :11:57.with the results on BBC radio Ulster. Good night, and have a great
:11:58. > :12:00.weekend.