McGuinness blames Britain for count delay

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has claimed the British government is “culpable” for the delay in completing the Northern Ireland election counts, criticising the addition of the AV referendum to the elections for councillors and MLAs.

The Deputy First Minister was speaking at the conclusion of the Mid-Ulster count in Ballymena late last night.

"I think the reality of the situation is that the three elections that were held in the course of the election on May 5th absolutely complicated the entire situation," he said.

"And for that I think the British government are culpable...particularly adding the AV referendum to two elections that would elect local government councillors and MLAs to the Assembly."

Mr McGuinness topped the poll with 8,957 votes, well up on the 8065 he received in 2007 but not enough to bring in a fourth candidate.

There were calls for an inquiry into why the counts were so slow. DUP MP for North Belfast Nigel Dodds said the pace of the counts was getting to be "ridiculous", while Mr McGuinness around teatime said there was "concern and dismay . . . that we have not one seat allocated".

Former DUP enterprise minister Arlene Foster said the situation was approaching "farce"