Polling stations closed after new elections for the Stormont Assembly.
The Northern Ireland Electoral Service provided estimates of constituency turnout at 9pm on Thursday, averaging around 54%, an hour before polls closed at 10pm.
They said the figure was based on the average of polling station results.
Indicative turnout ranges from 60% in West Belfast to 47% in the South Antrim constituency.
The official final figure of the turnout will be known only on Friday morning.
Turnout in the last parliamentary elections in 2017 was 64%.
The counting process will begin at 8 a.m. Friday to select 90 MLAs for the Assembly, with 239 candidates.
Earlier, Chief Executive Officer Virginia McVeigh said: “We have a new system so we can monitor voter turnout digitally.
Northern Ireland’s political leaders voted earlier Thursday.
Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill filled out her ballot at St. Patrick’s Elementary School in her home village of Clono, Co Tyrone, accompanied by party colleague Linda Dylan.
She posed for photos with some voters before leaving.
Thirty miles away, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson cast his vote at Dromore Central Primary School in Co Down.
UUP leader Doug Beatty voted at Seagoe Elementary School in Portadown, Co Armagh.
Alliance leader Naomi Long released her ballot, accompanied by her husband Michael, to the parish house of St. Colmsil in the eastern constituency of Belfast, where he was once an MP.
Colum Eastwood, leader of the nationalist SDLP, voted at the model’s elementary school in his hometown of Londonderry, accompanied by his wife Rachel and children.
Jim Alistair, leader of TUV, voted early this morning at Kells and Connor Primary School in Co Antrim.
The DUP and Sinn Fein are vying for first place in the election, which comes with the right to nominate the next prime minister.
The Unionist Party has always been the largest in the Assembly, and previously in the Stormont Parliament, since the founding of the state in 1921.
While the positions of first and deputy first ministers are on a par with joint authority, the distribution of titles is considered symbolically important.
The Northern Ireland Protocol cast a long shadow over the election campaign following the resignation of Prime Minister Paul Givan in February in a bid to force the UK government to act on post-Brexit trade agreements.
This action left the executive branch unable to function fully.
As long as ministers remained in office, they were limited in the actions they could take.
Unionists oppose additional checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain as a border in the Irish Sea.
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis said he had told parties they needed to work together to restore a fully functioning decentralized government after the election.
“I conveyed to the countries the need for them to work together to restore fully functioning decentralized institutions as soon as possible when the census is over,” he said.
Five seats in the Assembly are expected in 18 constituencies, with a total of 90 MPs returned. A total of 239 candidates are running.
Northern Ireland uses the electoral system for proportional representation with one transferable vote (STV).
The count will begin at three centers in Belfast, Jordanstown and Magerafelt on Friday morning, with the first results expected the same day.
The DUP won 28 seats in the last assembly election in 2017, just before Sinn Fein, who returned 27 MLAs.
Next was the SDLP with 12 seats, the Ulster Union Party with 10 seats, the Alliance with eight seats, the Green Party with two seats, while the People Before Profit and TUV had one MLA each.
This year, the DUP is believed to be playing with 30 candidates, while Sinn Fein is running with 34.
Meanwhile, the UUP has 27 candidates, the Alliance Party has 24 candidates, the SDLP has 22, the TUV has 19 candidates, the Green Party has 18 and the People Before Profit has 12, and Aontu, while the Workers’ Party has six candidates and the PUP three. .
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Socialist Party have two candidates each, while the Conservatives in Northern Ireland, the Cross Community Labor Alliance (CCLA), Resume NI and the Heritage Party have one candidate each.
There are 24 independent candidates.
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