In the North, Sinn Féin has managed to cut the majority of the Democratic Unionist Party to a single seat in a snap election. Although the DUP is still the biggest party, the results mean completely new ground for the North.


The unionists previously had a 10-seat majority, but they now have 28 out of 90 seats, while Sinn Féin has 27, after a high voter turnout of 65%.
Why was there a snap election in the first place?
 


For the first time, unionists won’t have the overall majority which affects Stormont’s “petition of concern”. A petition of concern can be brought by 30 or more MLAs to veto particular bills, like marriage equality or any amendments to the abortion laws. With fewer MLAs, the DUP has lost the ability to do that. Same-sex marriage legislation could now by pushed by Sinn Féin. The party also backed legislation last year that would have allowed abortion in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities. The amendment to the Justice Bill was blocked at the time, but now the party may have more power to make some progress in reforming abortion laws, although many other parties support the abortion ban. What’s happened to other parties?





Arlene Foster is likely to face some scrutiny after the DUP lost such a big lead (and importantly, Stromont veto means). The nationalist SDLP is now the third largest party with 12 seats which was better than expected.
The Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has resigned after a poor showing – the party only has 10 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) now. While the Alliance party has eight, the Greens two, People Before Profit one, Traditional Unionist Voice one and there’s one independent unionist.
It means the balance of unionist to nationalist is much more balanced than it was before – 40 unionists to 39 nationalist/republicans, with the remainder of the 90 MLAs affiliated to neither tradition.
What it might mean for Brexit