In the constituency of East Derry, former insurance broker David McClarty’s gamble of standing as an Independent candidate against his former colleagues in the Ulster Unionist Party paid dividends as he wrested the seat from the party.
Mr McClarty resigned from the UUP last September following an internal party selection row.
“I was described by my former colleagues as being a spent force and over the hill. The decision to oust me as a candidate last year was illogical and was born out of petty jealousies,” he said.
The DUP’s Gregory Campbell was elected first in the constituency and was followed by his party colleagues George Robinson and Adrian McQuillan, the SDLP’s John Dallat and Mr McClarty.
For the first time in its history, the UUP no longer has an Assembly representative in the bordering constituencies of Foyle and East Derry.
In the Foyle constituency, it was a case of as you were as all three parties retained their seats.
The DUP's William Hay, the Assembly speaker, topped the poll in this nationalist majority constituency in Derry for the second successive year after the Ulster Unionist Party declined to field a candidate.
The SDLP held on to their three seats. Sitting Assemblyman Pat Ramsey and debutants Mark H. Durkan - a nephew of former SDLP leader Mark Durkan - and Colum Eastwood, the current Mayor of Derry, successfully defended their party's three seats.
Sinn Féin's Martina Anderson and party colleague Raymond McCartney easily retained their seats as their overall party vote moved to within 500 votes of the SDLP.
People Before Profit Alliance candidate Eamonn McCann, who has contested elections for the last six decades without winning a seat, again failed to be returned to any elective assembly.
The big loser in the Foyle constituency was SDLP candidate Pol Callaghan, a former personal adviser to Mark Durkan, who was co-opted onto the Assembly following his resignation last year.