Unionists stay at home, while Sinn Fein benefits

Unionists Could Lose Belfast City Hall

Counting the votes will not be completed until Friday but it already it looks as if many Protestants have stayed at home. This could mean that the Unionists may lose control of Fremanagh as well as Belfast.

Sinn Fein have polled particularly strongly in Londonderry but have been accused of vote stealing by the nationalist SDLP. The claims have been strongly denied by Sinn Fein's national chairman Mitchell McLaughlin.

Mallon: critical of meeting with Sinn Fein

This, however, is not the only controversy to dog the elections. The Government has been accused of breaking the Representation of the People Act by both the SDLP's Deputy leader Seamus Mallon and the Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis.

The allegations centre on the Government's decision to allow senior civil servents to talk to representatives on Sinn Fein during yesterday's poll.

Mr Maginnis also claimed that Mo Mowlam's decision to meet with Nationalist residents groups boosted Republican support saying, "If there has been a deliberate infringement of the electoral system, then there maybe grounds for asking that the whole process de declared null and void."