Sinn Fein opens huge lead in Northern Ireland voting

Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein secured far more first-preference votes in elections to Northern Ireland's regional assembly than its rivals, indicating it was likely to win the election, broadcaster tallies showed.

Sinn Fein secured 29% of the vote compared to 21.3% by the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, data collated by Britain's BBC and Ireland's RTE broadcasters showed after first-preference votes were counted in all 18 constituencies.

Under Northern Ireland's proportional representation voting system, the party that wins the most first-preference votes is not guaranteed of winning the most seats in the regional assembly but it is hard for a party to overcome a significant deficit.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)