Sinn Fein set for first win in Northern Ireland election

Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein is widely expected to become the largest group in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein was widely expected to become the largest group in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time, with vote-counting in this week's election resuming Saturday.

If Sinn Finn emerges victorious, it will be entitled to the post of first minister in Belfast for the first time since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state in 1921.

A Sinn Fein win in the election would be a milestone for a party long linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs, bullets and other forms of violence to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of unrest. 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, namely the skyrocketing cost of living.