DUP, Sinn Fein Lead In N. Ireland Election

(AP) Hard-liners pulled ahead Friday in an election to decide who will control the Northern Ireland Assembly and hold the key to revived power-sharing in this British territory.

The Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and the Catholics of Sinn Fein appeared on course to strengthen their hold over each side of the assembly.

All winners from Wednesday's election to the 108-member assembly were expected to be confirmed Friday. Northern Ireland's complex system of proportional representation allowed voters to pick candidates in order of preference and required ballots to be recounted several times.

At stake is achieving the central aim of the Good Friday peace accord of 1998: an administration drawn equally from the British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority that can govern Northern Ireland in stability and a spirit of compromise.

A moderate-led coalition collapsed in 2002. The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein triumphed in the last assembly elections in 2003, making power-sharing harder to revive, mainly because the Democratic Unionists rejected the Good Friday pact and refused even to talk to Sinn Fein.

If his party gets the most votes, Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley could claim the top power-sharing post of "first minister." Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness would be his party's candidate for "deputy first minister," a position with equal powers despite its title.

The moderate parties that led the previous administration — the Catholics of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, or SDLP and the Protestants of the Ulster Unionists — were expected to finish in third and fourth place. They would receive two posts each in the next 12-member administration.

Of 72 seats declared, the Democratic Unionists had won 25 and Sinn Fein 24 as ballot-counting resumed Friday. Both parties scored their biggest shares of the vote in Northern Ireland history.

The Democratic Unionist Party, which received 30 percent of first-preference votes, faced immediate pressure from the British and Irish governments to cut a deal with Sinn Fein, which received 26 percent.