Who is popular today?

The first candidate has been elected to the Assembly in the first round of results at the Titanic count centre in Belfast.
The Alliance Party’s Kellie Armstrong topped the poll and was elected on the first count with 7,015 first preferences votes, just over the quota of 6,811.
The TUV candidate, Stephen Cooper, will be pleased with his first preference tally of 5,186; this has impacted on the DUP’s vote, with the former minister for education, Peter Weir, looking the most under threat of the three DUP candidates.
He took 3,313 first preferences compared to his running mates Harry Harvey on 4,704 and Michelle McIlveen, the outgoing minister for education, on 6,601.
Another high-profile name who could be in trouble is Mike Nesbitt, the former UUP leader – he polled only 3,693 first preferences and his party will surely question the wisdom of running two candidates in this constituency.
The SDLP’s candidate, Conor Houston, will be disappointed with only 2,440 first preferences; this had been one of the constituencies where the SDLP was hopeful of a gain.
Sinn Féin is on course to take the largest number of seats in the Stormont Assembly and therefore the position of first minister of Northern Ireland, as counting continues in the Assembly election.
Though it would be a symbolic victory only, as the positions of first and deputy first minister are a joint office with the two roles regarded as “first among equals”, it would be the first time a nationalist has ever held the top job in Northern Ireland’s history, and as such it would inevitably be hugely significant.
No results have been declared yet but it is understood the party is confident it will retain its four seats in west Belfast.
Early indications also showed an Alliance Party “surge”, with the party also understood to be confident of gaining a second seat in North Down, potentially at the expense of the Green Party.
It could also be in the running for a second seat in South Belfast, again at the expense of the Greens.
This could wipe out the Greens’ representation in the Assembly unless it makes gains elsewhere.
Arriving at the Titanic count centre in East Belfast, Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has hailed a “positive” election for the party but warned there was “a long way to go” before the results were known and “until it is actually there on the board and counted, I never take anything for granted”.
Ms Long is expecting to be comfortably re-elected in East Belfast and topped the poll in the constituency in 2017.
“But, yeah, it looks like it has been a good day for Alliance.
“We fought a positive campaign, we fought a campaign that was focused on what we could do if we could get a government up and running. That has to be the focus and I think people responded to it. There is precious little hope available for people at the minute, it has been a pretty grim couple of years and the politics has been pretty grim to match it. We just offered people hope that things could be better and that’s what we want to deliver on.
“Who knows what the end of today will look like because a lot of this is going to depend on transfers and that is really hard to predict but it’s been a good day so far.”
With the SDLP also reported to be polling less well than the party had hoped, the source said if the trend continues Alliance’s gains could be at the expense of other centre ground parties.
Alliance, which took eight seats in the last Assembly election in 2017, was confident of gaining three or four seats but on a “really good day” it could take double that.
However, to take eight or nine seats would depend on the party getting all its ducks in a row in terms of transfers in constituencies where it is seeking a second seat.
Earlier on Friday, a senior Alliance source stressed it was “early days” but said the party was “optimistic” and was also performing well in Strangford, Lagan Valley and East Antrim.
The first of the 90 MLAs are expected to be returned by Friday afternoon but counting is set to continue into the early hours of Saturday.
Voter turnout was high in some constituencies, at 69.54 per cent in Mid Ulster, 68.49 per cent in Newry and Armagh, and 66.19 per cent in South Down.
Some 239 candidates are running across 18 constituencies.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin are vying for top spot at Stormont, which comes with the entitlement to nominate the next first minister.
NI protocol
The Northern Ireland protocol has cast a long shadow over the election campaign following the resignation of first minister Paul Givan in February in an effort to force the UK government to act over the post-Brexit trading arrangements.
This action left the Executive unable to fully function. While ministers remained in post, they were restricted in the actions they could take.
Unionists object to the additional checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain as a border in the Irish Sea.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson warned on Friday that his party would not re-enter the Executive without action over the protocol.
He told the BBC: “I’ll tell you one thing, if there’s no legislation in the queen’s speech and no plans to deal with the protocol then we’ve made it very clear the Assembly can’t function if the poison of the protocol is still there.”
But Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said people were more concerned about bread-and-butter issues.
He said: “I believe the DUP during the campaign outlined a five-point plan as to how they were going to grow our economy, fix our health service and help working families. I don’t see how that is possible without an executive – in fact, it’s not possible without an executive.”
Election
Five Assembly seats are up for grabs in each of the 18 constituencies.
Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote (STV) proportional representation electoral system.
The DUP won 28 seats at the last Assembly elections in 2017, just ahead of Sinn Féin which returned 27 MLAs.
Next was the SDLP with 12 seats, the Ulster Unionist Party with 10 seats, Alliance with eight seats, the Green Party with two seats while People Before Profit and the TUV had one MLA each.
This year, the DUP has been regarded as playing it safe, running 30 candidates, while Sinn Féin is running 34.
Meanwhile, the UUP is running 27 candidates, the Alliance Party is running 24, the SDLP is fielding 22, TUV is putting up 19 candidates, the Green Party is running 18 and People Before Profit 12, as is Aontu, while the Workers Party is running six candidates and the PUP three.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Socialist Party are each fielding two candidates while the Northern Ireland Conservatives, Cross Community Labour Alliance (CCLA), Resume NI and Heritage Party are each running one candidate.
There are 24 independent candidates. – Additional reporting PA