Sinn Fein set for first win in Northern Ireland election

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein is widely expected to become the largest group in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time. Vote-counting in the election resumed Saturday. A Sinn Fein win in the election would be a milestone for a party long linked to the Irish Republican Army. It would also bring Sinn Fein’s ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer. But the party has kept such issues low down on its agenda during a campaign that has been dominated by more immediate concerns like the skyrocketing cost of living. A unionist party has held the role of Northern Ireland’s first minister since the 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of Catholic-Protestant conflict.