Nationalist reaction: The Democratic Unionist Party will have to get involved in talks with pro-Belfast Agreement parties following its good election showing, the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, said after the first day of counting.
Rejecting the DUP's demands for a renegotiation of the Good Friday agreement, Mr Adams insisted the other main parties would not concede ground.
Northern Ireland was "a political slum as a consequence of British rule", he declared. "The Good Friday agreement is an interlocking piece of architecture.
"The price that any party who wants to have a devolved government must pay is the Good Friday agreement. There is no better way forward," he told journalists in the King's Hall count centre in Balmoral, Belfast.
The agreement had equally been accepted on both parts of the island, and by the majority of unionists in Northern Ireland, he added. "That can't be set aside by anybody.
"I have not lost confidence in the ordinary people. The politicians have to live up to their responsibilities and to catch up with the people on the ground," he went on.
"We have done business with Ian Paisley in the past on the agriculture committee in the assembly. He didn't do a bad job, I have to say," said Mr Adams, clearly buoyed by his party's results.
"The supporters of every party want the peace process to work. They want an agenda that moves forward. There can be no renegotiation of the Good Friday agreement."
The Sinn Féin leader said the party's success throughout the 18 constituencies had been achieved by the efforts of party workers from every county on the island.
"We asked people to endorse the risks that we have taken. We stood on our record in the assembly," said Mr Adams, shortly after he had been elected in West Belfast.
Speaking in Derry, Mr Martin McGuinness laid down a strong marker, saying: "In the last assembly we had 18 members. This time we will have at least 20, and that will give us both the numbers and the mandate to contest the top two positions in the next executive."
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, said: "The warning that we were putting out about bad politicians being elected by good people who do not vote may well prove to be the case.
"The lower poll has had a bigger impact on us than on other parties, and obviously we have more work to do in that regard in terms of a better mobilisation of our vote. It's not as good as it should be. That is a fact, and I don't hide from the facts.
"But it is not an excuse. I am just, as I have always done, telling things as they are. Obviously we have challenges organisationally.
"We do need more resources. It's well known that Sinn Féin has a massive party machine, and we could do with more people. Those are the sort of challenges I am talking about, not leadership challenges," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Alex Atwood of the SDLP, who has been re-elected to the assembly, warned that the gains made by both Sinn Féin and the DUP would damage the peace process.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley. had "unambiguously" declared his attitude to the Good Friday agreement and to political negotiations last night, said Mr Atwood.
On speculation from some observers who believed Sinn Féin and the DUP would do business now that both are stronger, he said: "We heard loud and clear that not very much will come out of that."
He acknowledged that the election result had highlighted problems within the SDLP. "There is no point complaining about it. We have to get it sorted. We did not get our vote out," he said.