In Belfast the pro-agreement bloc of candidates easily accounted for their No opponents. Of the 24 seats in Belfast's four constituencies, politicians who are committed to making the Assembly work won 19, while those opposed to key elements of the deal took five seats.
While the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader, Mr David Trimble, had difficulties elsewhere with some anti-agreement party members being elected, Belfast voters ensured only UUP candidates in favour of the agreement were returned.
The Belfast Yes voters applied a degree of sophistication to try to safeguard the agreement and the Assembly. There was firm evidence of this in South Belfast and East Belfast where, respectively, Mr Jim Clarke and Mr Jim Rogers of the UUP were perceived as in the No camp. The UUP, which ran three candidates in each constituency, won two seats in each of them - all taken by pro-agreement candidates. The unionist voters and those nationalists transferring to the UUP took care to ensure Mr Rogers and Mr Clarke were not elected.
The DUP will have been rather disappointed with the Belfast result. It won four seats in the city compared with the five it took in the 1996 Forum election.
Mr Peter Robinson, with a huge vote comprising almost two quotas, managed to bring in one of his two running mates, Mr Sammy Wilson, in East Belfast. His transfers eventually brought Mr Wilson up from an initial paltry 633 votes to 5,711 votes.
Independent unionist, Mr Fraser Agnew, an anti-agreement candidate, won a seat in North Belfast, where the DUP secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, topped the poll.
The UUP won five seats, the same number it took in the Forum election. In East Belfast, where the party took two seats, Mr Reg Empey's election was important. His nerve helped steady Mr Trimble during the unionist convulsions of recent months and he will need his calming influence again in the coming difficult months.
On the nationalist side, the SDLP will be particularly happy with the Belfast results. It won only three seats in the Forum, but managed five this time - two in both West Belfast and South Belfast, and one in North Belfast.
Sinn Fein won five seats, just as it did in the Forum - four in West Belfast and one in North Belfast, which went to Mr Gerry Kelly, a former IRA prisoner and one of the party's negotiators.
Excluding Alliance and non-aligned parties from the equation in North Belfast, unionist parties won 21,600 votes, almost equal to the unionist turnout in 1996. But where the SDLP and Sinn Fein polled just slightly over 15,000 votes in the Forum election two years ago, this time the figure was almost 17,500.
Just as no nationalist members were elected in East Belfast, there were no unionist seats in West Belfast. Excellent vote management by Sinn Fein gave the party four seats, with its leader, Mr Gerry Adams, topping the poll.
The SDLP reversed its terrible Forum performance when only Dr Joe Hendron was returned in West Belfast. This time Dr Hendron and Mr Alex Attwood, a solicitor and one of the younger SDLP intellectual heavyweights, were returned pretty comfortably.
The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) marked its real arrival in the political world with Mr David Ervine elected in East Belfast and Mr Billy Hutchinson in North Belfast, thus ensuring the UVF will have political representation. Ominously, the UDA will not, as its political representatives in the Ulster Democratic Party failed to take a seat.
Alliance had a terrible election in Belfast. The party leader, Lord Alderdice, won in East Belfast, but that was its only seat in the city. For Ms Monica McWilliams, who won in South Belfast, and the Women's Coalition, which also won a seat in North Down, this weekend was a period of great celebration.
