Voting in Northern Ireland's Assembly Election got off to a sluggish start across the province's 18 constituencies.
Despite sunshine breaking out across Northern Ireland, parties reported a slow trickle of voters in the polling stations, which opened at about 7am.
A total of 257 candidates are vying for 108 Assembly seats. Each constituency will return six Assembly members, with counting of the votes taking place on Thursday and Friday.
Unionist and nationalist parties were expecting a surge in voters later in the day as people return from work. "At this stage the pattern seems to be following that of previous elections," a Democratic Unionist (DUP) spokesman said.
"There had been concerns that we would have poor weather, given the stormy conditions of recent days. That has not been the case this morning and hopefully it will remain so throughout the day because there is no doubt that can affect turn out," he added.
Of the 257 candidates, the DUP are fielding 46, the Ulster Unionists 38, Sinn Fein 37, the SDLP 35 and the cross community Alliance Party 18.
The UK Unionists have 13 candidates, with party leader Robert McCartney running in six constituencies. The Green Party is running 13 candidates, the Conservatives nine, the Workers Party six and the Progressive Unionists three.
Rainbow George of the Make Politicians History Party is also running in four constituencies and there is also a plethora of independent candidates, unionists opposed to the DUP potentially sharing power with Sinn Fein, and republicans critical of Gerry Adams' party for signing up to supporting the police in Northern Ireland.
Of the 26 independent, six are Republican Sinn Fein members who are being treated as independent because they failed to register with the Electoral Commission as a political party. And the Socialist Party has two candidates competing for seats and there is one candidate each from Northern Ireland Labour, the Socialist Environmental Alliance, the UK Independence Party, People Before Profit and a Pro-Capitalism candidate.
Ballots were being cast in 1560 boxes at 626 locations across Northern Ireland. Most polling stations were in schools.
