People go to Polls in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Election)

Voting is under way in the Northern Ireland elections.

The polls will close at 10pm this evening and counting will start tomorrow.

As Northern Ireland has a proportional representation voting system (you rank candidates in order of preference) it takes a little longer to get the result, so we probably won't know the final results until Friday.

The British and Irish governments want a power sharing administration set up at Stormont by 26th March, but the DUP have set several preconditions to entering government with Sinn Fein.

They say they need to prove they are fully committed to policing and they also want a financial package from the government and guarantees that the new Water Rates system will not be implemented this April.

Both the DUP and Sinn Fein have seen party members leave in protest over the last few months. Those who have left the DUP say they are doing so because their party should not even entertain the idea of sharing power with Sinn Fein. Those who have left Sinn Fein are those who do not agree with their party's acceptance of policing.

That said, the DUP and Sinn Fein are still most likely to come out on top.

They will then enter two weeks of negotiations.

Many people have been surprised that the election campaign in Northern Ireland has been so quiet. It is an election which has focused on issues like water rates and domestic rates - there has been far less of the tribal politics Northern Ireland is used to.

So the campaign may have been dull, but the next few weeks promise to be a lot more interesting.