Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly in Belfast will be restored Saturday following two years of political deadlock.
This is how the assembly works.
Northern Ireland is governed differently from the rest of the United Kingdom after the 1998 Belfast or Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended decades of sectarian violence.
A finely balanced model of governance at the Stormont parliament buildings in Belfast ensures that the two main communities -- pro-UK unionists on the one hand and pro-Irish unity nationalists on the other -- share power in the assembly and executive.
The Northern Ireland Executive, which makes decisions and policies, is made up of the first and deputy first ministers and their cabinet.
There are 90 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Everyone in Northern Ireland has five MLAs in their constituency who represent them.
First business at Stormont on Saturday will be the election of a Speaker in the assembly. Then the parties entitled to form the executive will nominate ministers.
In a historic first, Sinn Fein, the largest pro-Irish unity party and former political wing of the paramilitary IRA, became the largest party after the last assembly election in May 2022, entitling it to nominate a first minister.
Also for the first time, the largest pro-UK party the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) will nominate a deputy first minister.
{{/usCountry}}Also for the first time, the largest pro-UK party the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) will nominate a deputy first minister.
{{/usCountry}}Until 2022, a unionist party was always the largest party, so the first minister has always been unionist.
The first and deputy first minister posts have different titles but both offices hold equal weight and one minister cannot act without the other.
As well as jointly leading the executive, Sinn Fein and the DUP are also entitled to several other ministerial posts each.
There are nine departments at Stormont.
Apart from the justice portfolio all are allocated to the parties based on how many MLAs they have, using the "d'Hondt mechanism" -- a formula used widely in proportional representation systems.
Policing and justice powers, which were not devolved until 2010 as the DUP opposed Sinn Fein controlling the brief, require a cross-community vote.
The third-largest party, the liberal centrist Alliance, and a smaller pro-UK unionist party, the UUP, are expected to take the remaining ministerial jobs.
A smaller pro-Irish unity nationalist party, the SDLP, will form the executive's opposition.
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