The Alliance Party was on course last night to retain the balance of power in Belfast City Council. By the close of counting last night the party had three seats and was on course to pick up three more on a slightly increased share of the vote.
With 28 of the council's 51 seats declared, Sinn Féin had won 12 and the SDLP just two seats. On the other side of the chamber, Democratic Unionists won six seats and the UUP picked up four, while Mr David Ervine's Progressive Unionists slipped to just one seat.
The party's other councillor, Mr Billy Hutchinson, followed his Assembly defeat in 2003 with the loss of his seat in north Belfast.
The Alliance vote rose by 0.3 per cent to just under 7 per cent, but that was enough to consolidate its position in City Hall as power-broker between the main unionist and nationalist blocs.
In West Belfast, Sinn Féin picked up nine of the 10 seats in Upper and Lower Falls, with Mr Tim Attwood, brother of the former SDLP chairman Alex Attwood, the sole representative of his party.
Mr David Ford, the Alliance leader, was pleased with his party's performance across Northern Ireland and stuck to his claim that his councillors alone represented the true centre ground.
For the DUP, Mr Sammy Wilson was re-elected in east Belfast having been elected to Westminster for East Antrim on Friday.
The Alliance Party claims its presence in City Hall has calmed what used to be highly confrontational meetings of the council, and underpinned a system by which the parties rotate the position of Lord Mayor.
It was under such a voting arrangement that Alex Maskey became the city's first Sinn Féin Lord Mayor in 2002-3.