Poots tops the poll as DUP take four seats in Lagan Valley

His party took four of the six seats in the constituency as the DUP ended up as the biggest party in Stormont.

Mr Poots said: “It was a fantastic result, we knocked every door in the area and many of the them twice.

“There was a huge effort from our workers on the ground and we had the right policies which people had confidence in.

“We are the biggest unionist party and have lots of respect for the other parties, the TUV and UUP. We don’t want to split and divide unionism, we want to reach out the hand of friendship to them.”

Mr Poots appealed for a unionist pact.

He insisted it wasn’t important for him to outpoll the UUP’s Basil McCrea, who was also elected on the first count, on 5,771 votes - well above the quota of 5,070.

The DUP MLA said the key issue now was a “coalition” with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) ahead of the next polls.

A united front was needed to secure the union and maintain the British tradition in Northern Ireland, he said.

“I would suggest to members of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) that they reflect over the next weeks and months about looking to do business with the DUP,” he added.

Mr Poots was able to watch as his running mates Jonathan Craig who won 4,263 first preferences, Paul Givan (4,352) and Brenda Hale, who took 2,910 first preference votes, all join him in the new assembly.

Alliance’s Trevor Lunn secured 4,389 first preference votes and easily made it home to win a seat for the second time.

Mr McCrea’s UUP running mate Mark Hill won 1,482 first preferences.

The SDLP’s Pat Catney secured 2,165 first preferences, while Sinn Fein’s Mark Kate Quinn won 1,203 first preferences.

The TUV’s Lyle Rea polled 1,031 votes and Conor Quinn of the Greens 592.

The total turnout was 53 per cent with a quota of 5,070 votes.