ARLENE Foster was allowed a private room at the assembly election count for "health and safety" because "cameramen and women were after her", council emails say.
Questions were raised in March about the DUP leader and party colleagues occupying a room at Omagh leisure centre.
Two security men guarded the door of the conference room and window blinds were drawn.
Both the local council and Electoral Office (EONI) at the time refused to explain what had happened.
The SDLP's Mary Garrity, chair of Fermanagh and Omagh council, criticised the "special treatment" not afforded to other candidates.
Two months on, internal emails uncovered by The Irish News through a freedom of information request shed new light on the matter.
The correspondence shows how council staff sought to find out in detail what had happened in the days following the election.
In one email, an official described how Mrs Foster's aides had asked a staff member for a separate room.
"[Name redacted] had come to her and requested a room for Arlene to have a cup of tea as the whole cameramen and women were after her and were going to follow her into the coffee shop, which at this point was packed.
"They were trying to stand on chairs etc, and it was requested for staff and public safety that Arlene was given a space or room to sit in mainly to defuse the situation. This was also why food was brought in."
There were said to be "a lot of cameras and papers after her" and it was agreed that "it was a health and safety issue if she entered the coffee shop with all the people, never mind the staff".
Council staff attempted to draft various detailed responses to media queries.
One said a council staff member, who was working for EONI as a security officer on the day, sought a room after being approached by Mrs Foster's entourage.
He then approached the centre manager "as the media scrum accompanying said politician was, in his view, posing a risk in terms of health and safety".
"In order to defuse the situation, it was agreed that the committee room be made available for a short time," it said.
The decision had not been approved by the deputy returning officer. When told, the officer "agreed that it was the safest thing to do but instructed [an official] to order them from the room".
However, a detailed response was shelved as EONI "would not be content" with it, a council communications official said.
Eventually, the council released a one-line statement saying only that it was a "matter for EONI", while EONI said it does "not provide rooms for candidates at count venues".
Mrs Foster largely maintained a visible distance from the media during the election count for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
The snap election, which was called amid the RHI scandal, saw the DUP returned as the largest party at Stormont but with its seats reduced from 38 to 28, just one ahead of Sinn Féin.
