Political Correspondent At the King's Hall
IF you've never been at a European election count imagine an airport departure lounge with very few seats and all flights delayed. There's a lot of sauntering around, plenty of idle chat and inevitably complaints about the length of time taken to count votes.
It can be a tense, nervous time for candidates and party workers alike, so distractions from the humdrum are always welcome. This goes a long way to explaining the commotion that greeted the estranged king and queen of Aspire to Better -- Basil McCrea and Tina McKenzie.
Ordinarily, their arrival would've barely raised an eyebrow but the controversy that has embroiled NI21 over the past week effectively turned them into election count A-listers, with the media scrum that greeted both greater than for any other candidates.
However, like most big league celebrities they didn't have a great deal to say for themselves in the separate interviews they gave, though both assured us that they were taking legal action against as yet unnamed parties.
Once the excitement of the royal visit had subsided it was back again to the sauntering around, idle chat and even more complaints about the length of time taken to count votes.
The next notable development came around 4pm as guestimates of the final tallies began to emerge. Up until this point, Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt had been swanning around the count centre with a smile on his face, basking in the glory of his party's modest bounce back in the council elections. But suddenly his demean-our changed as news filtered through of a slide in Jim Nicholson's vote and talk of the veteran MEP missing out on a seat.
It was a tense couple of hours for the former UTV anchorman and his team, and surely their mood wasn't helped by the DUP, whose large contingent made a big noisy fuss with flags and flowers as Diane Dodds arrived with husband Nigel.
By the time the first result arrived there was a explosion of tension and the air became thick with "yeeooos" as Martina Anderson was announced as poll topper. And with that the Shinners packed up and left, followed not long afterwards by the DUP, who by this stage were assured their candidate would be returned.
As the night wore on and transfers came into play it looked increasingly less like a cliffhanger for Jim Nicholson, who began edging ahead of the field.
With the possibility that the count could go on until 2 am, anyone who was in a position to go home did so. This correspondent included....