AE17 - The Belfast lowdown so far

By Maria McCann

Counting is well underway here at the Titanic Exhibition Centre where candidates standing in the city's four constituencies await results.

The first big name to lose out is Alex Atwood in West Belfast meaning there will now be no SDLP representatives in the predominantly nationalist area.

Orlaithi Flynn came out first there after securing 6,918 first preference votes.

It was only 10 months ago that People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll topped the poll and secured over 8,000 votes. Today he only managed to get half of that after the first count.

West Belfast results after first stage #qradioelex #AE17 pic.twitter.com/maqU2xVMfS

— Maria McCann (@journomaria) March 3, 2017

In another victory for Sinn Fein, Mairtin O Muilleoir topped the poll in South Belfast and will no doubt be happy with his 7,610 first preference votes.

@newbelfast elected to South Belfast @qnewsdesk #ae16 #qradioelex pic.twitter.com/KjsTQJf6i0

— Maria McCann (@journomaria) March 3, 2017

With seats reducing from 6 to 5 in each constituency, the battle for seats is expected to be tight.

There are huge uncertainties as to whether two DUP MLAs will return to South Belfast and there are rumours Emma Little Pengelly will lose out..

Other high profile DUP politicians thought to be at risk are Robin Newton in East Belfast and Nelson McCausland in the North of the city.

In East Belfast, Naomi Long topped the poll with 7,610 first preference votes.

The Alliance Party's Naomi Long tops the poll in East Belfast. She says she's confident her running mate Chris Lyttle will win his seat soon pic.twitter.com/R7gdFGSk1e

— Maria McCann (@journomaria) March 3, 2017

The Alliance Party leader says she's confident her running mate Chris Lyttle will comfortably get his seat too.

In North Belfast, no one was elected after the first stage however Gerry Kelly is currently only around 700 votes short of reaching the quota.

Across the board voter turnout was up by around 10%. That is in line with the pattern across Northern Ireland as a whole.

The percentage turnout in each of the four Belfast constituencies was over 60%.

• West Belfast - 67%
• South Belfast - 64%
• North Belfast - 62%
• East Belfast - 63%

Pundits believe this is down to frustration with the stalemate at Stormont in the last mandate which resulted in the collapse of powersharing and triggered the snap election on March 2nd.