The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has narrowly won the Northern Ireland’s snap election, which had been called because of the collapse of the power-sharing agreement in the devolved Assembly.
Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Party, made major gains over the rival bloc, coming only one seat short of DUP’s 28 seats.
Despite emerging victorious, DUP now holds 10 seats fewer than it previously did and for the first time, unionists do not have an overall majority at Stormont.
The outcome is seen as a humiliation for Northern Ireland’s largest political faction and for the party’s embattled leader, Arlene Foster.
“The notion of a perpetual unionist majority has been demolished,” Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said.
Sinn Féin had refused to replace Martin McGuinness as leader of nationalists and deputy first minister, while Foster had rejected calls to resign amid an investigation into the government’s handling of a botched renewable energy…