Edwin Poots has been announced as the new leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, after a day of voting within the party.
Mr Poots will replace Arlene Foster in the role, after she announced on April 28 that she would step down as leader of the DUP on May 28. DUP politicians were casting their votes in the first leadership contest in the party's history from Friday lunchtime.
The 36 members of the party's electoral college, made up of its MPs and Stormont Assembly members, had been arriving at party headquarters in East Belfast to vote for either Sir Jeffrey Donaldson or Edwin Poots.
Ahead of the vote, which closed at 4pm, both politicians made final pitches for support in a virtual hustings event.
Sir Jeffrey was in confident mood as he left the headquarters afterwards. "Feeling good," he told waiting reporters as he left with DUP MP and deputy leadership contender Gregory Campbell.
Edwin Poots was non-committal as he left.
Asked what the mainstay of his leadership pitch was, Mr Poots said "reform".
Returning a short time later with fellow MLA and supporter Mervyn Storey, Mr Poots said he was "hopeful" of emerging victorious.
Reacting to his election, Mr Poots, who recently underwent cancer surgery, said: "It is an immense honour and pleasure to stand here today in this position, it is not a position that I expected to be in some weeks ago.
"However, things can change quite radically."
He added: "I'm looking forward to a positive relationship right across Northern Ireland with my party colleagues and indeed with people from other parties.
"I think the opportunities for Northern Ireland are great, the opportunities for us to make Northern Ireland a great place after this 100 years has passed and we move into a new 100 years."
The new leader of the DUP pledged on Friday to unite the bickering strands of unionism to fight the Brexit deal and thus lay the foundations for keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom.
He said: "The Northern Ireland protocol has proven to be a massive challenge for us and if we are to fight this, to ensure that everybody in Northern Ireland is not worse off as a consequence of the protocol, then it is for us to do that together," E
"This party has been the authentic voice of unionism and will continue to be the authentic voice of unionism under my leadership," he said. "I will be a leader in unionism who will be reaching out to other leaders in unionism".
"He is one of a number of DUP ministers who have protested against the Brexit arrangements by refusing to attend meetings with Irish counterparts established under the 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
"That has strained relations with Irish nationalist rivals Sinn Fein, with whom it leads Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.
