O'Dowd praises his election team

The Sinn Fein man paid tribute to the election team for the commitment and work they gave to the campaign.

He also thanked those who voted for him, he said: "I would like to personally thank everyone who voted for Sinn Fein and those who worked for the party during the election.

"Four weeks ago no one give us a chance of winning this once safe unionist seat, but we increased our share of the vote by 3.8 per cent and proved that we are real contenders for the Upper Bann seat."

He continued: "Sinn Fein have established the reality that we can take the Upper Bann seat at the next election and we are in a very strong position to take two Assembly seats in 2011.

"The result that Sinn Fein achieved is due to the fact that, despite a lower overall turnout, we received an increased Westminster vote right across the constituency and that result is down to the hard work of our local election team who worked tirelessly throughout the constituency.”