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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Anna McAree

Upper Bann election results as Doug Beattie clings on for fourth seat

The first day of counting in Magherafelt had ups and downs for Upper Bann, but ultimately very few results.

Out of an eligible electorate of 91,149 the total votes polled stood at 56,954, with a 62.48% turnout.

Early speculation put the future of UUP leader Doug Beattie in doubt, while Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd was the favourite to top the poll.

Read more: NI election results 2022 LIVE: Northern Ireland Assembly starts to take shape

Early indications looked good for Alliance's Eoin Tennyson as he seemed to poll ahead of UUP leader Doug Beattie and the DUP's Diane Dodds, however Alliance knew the final result would lie within the transfers.

The first count came hours after the ballot boxes were opened.

After the first count, no candidate had met the quota of 9,351. The closest candidate to the quota was Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd with 9,242 first preference votes, gaining from his 8,220 in 2017.

It took until the fourth count before any candidate in Upper Bann was elected. At 11pm John O'Dowd from Sinn Fein had passed the quota, with 10,146 votes.

The rest of the candidates would have to wait until day two of counting to find out their fate.

Taking the second seat after the fifth count was the DUP's Jonathan Buckley, finishing with 11,500 votes.

The third seat was awarded to the DUP's Diane Dodds, who stated she was "always confident" that the party would get 2 seats in Upper Bann. Diane Dodds finished with 10,182 votes.

The fourth seat result saw UUP leader Doug Beattie finally secure his seat. Beattie faced a lot of pressure to retain his seat and admitted his "heart was still pounding" in his election speech. UUP's Doug Beattie finished with 9,571 votes.

The fifth and final seat went to Alliance's Eoin Tennyson with with 8964.78 votes, narrowly beating Sinn Fein's Liam Mackle who finished with 8,588.71 votes to become the first Alliance MLA elected to Upper Bann.

Follow all the latest results as they happen on our live blog here.

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