By Rodney Edwards and Meadhbh Monahan

Michelle Gildernew has won back the Westminster seat that she lost two years ago.

Ms. Gildernew beat the Ulster Unionist's Tom Elliott in the contest and was declared Fermanagh-south Tyrone's new MLA after picking up 25,230 votes -- 875 more than Mr. Elliott.

Unlike pervious years, this election was without drama and after six hours of counting, Michelle Gildernew was announced as the winner at Omagh Leisure Centre moments ago.

Ms. Gildernew's goal was to take back the historic seat once held by IRA Hunger striker Bobby Sands and in doing so Mr. Elliott lost out, marking the end of a long political career.

Unlike previous years, Ms. Gildernew did not mention Sands in her victory speech.

Mr. Elliott received 24,355 votes while SDLP's Mary Garrity picked up 2,587 votes, Tanya Jones of the Green Party received 423 votes and Alliance's Noreen Campbell received 886 votes.

But the contest was always expected to be a two horse race between Mr. Elliott and Ms. Gildernew.

The snap election came just three months after a snap Assembly election triggered by the collapse of the power-sharing Executive. Indeed, in the past three years, there has also been another general and Assembly election, a European election, a local government election and the EU referendum.

In 2015 the eligible electorate here was 70,108 and across Northern Ireland was 1,236,765. There was 51,152 votes polled a turn out of 72.96 per cent.

This time despite election fatigue the turnout for the rural constituency was up to 76 per cent.

Addressing supporters, Ms. Gildernew said she was "proud, honoured and humbled to be part of Team Sinn Fein." She said that the electorate had "voted with their heads and hearts and voted for Sinn Fein because of a fear of Brexit and the failure to accept the majority who voted against Brexit in this constituency."

Throughout the six week campaign, Mr. Elliott spoke of the need for representation, something he said Ms Gildernew could not provide due to Sinn Fein's abstentionist policy, a point robustly rejected by Ms. Gildernew.

Sinn Fein on the other hand said this election was about opposing Brexit with Ms. Gildernew focusing on the fact that the majority of people in Fermanagh-south Tyrone voted to remain in the European Union.

Mr. Elliott, who as MP for the most rural constituency in the United Kingdom, voted to trigger Article 50, saying he would stand up for the people of the area post Brexit.

Tom Elliott had left the count centre ahead of the declaration of Ms. Gildernew as winner.

In 2015 Mr. Elliott won the hotly contested seat against the odds with 23,608 votes, 530 votes more than Ms. Gildernew's 23,078.

As in 2015, a unionist pact was agreed between the DUP and UUP, with the DUP agreeing to stand aside in this constituency.

But hitching his wagon to all shades of unionism, including the Orange Order, resulted in accusations of sectarianism from some of the other candidates, particularly Ms. Gildernew.

However, Mr. Elliott, a former Assembly member, gleefully told supporters during the race that he had represented “all of the people” in the area on all kinds of local issues.

Ms. Gildernew canvassed across the constituency, sometimes more than once, and enlisted the help of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams twice, deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald and MLA Jemma Dolan, riding the wave of the party's success in the Assembly election in March.

Now with three MLAs and one MP in Fermanagh-south Tyrone, the republican party has the hold in Stormont and Westminster.