Published Sunday, 08 May 2011
The DUP romped home with a record 38 seats - two more MLAs elected than in the previous term, despite a slightly reduced share of the vote.
The DUP and Sinn Féin, who finished with 29 seats, will still dominate Stormont over the next four years, with Sinn Féin consolidating their position in the west.
Mr Robinson pledged to use his party's best Assembly election result to build a shared future in memory of the 25-year-old officer, who was killed in the booby-trap bomb attack.
After the counting of votes ended in east Belfast on Saturday night, Mr Robinson said: "I want to dedicate this victory to the memory of young Ronan Kerr, a young man who at 25 years of age was blown into eternity by the hands of evil men."
He had a vision for Northern Ireland and he wanted to serve his community.
DUP leader Peter Robinson
"And in the words of his mother, she wanted to ensure that people would come out and support the way forward, peacefully, in Northern Ireland to have a united community, a shared society, that they might go forward with real opportunity and real hope."
The DUP leader added: "I therefore not only dedicate the victory to Ronan but dedicate myself to the vision that he had."
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who topped the poll in Mid Ulster, also paid tribute to the young PSNI recruit.
Mr McGuinness said dissidents did not speak for the people of Co Tyrone.
"Our message is very, very clear, and it is that their activities should cease, and cease immediately," he said. "That they must recognise that they are in a very lonely place and that there is no prospect whatsoever of them destroying everything that has been built up over the course of the last 15 years, since the Good Friday Agreement."
On Friday, the Electoral Office faced fierce criticism after long delays in the verification and counting of votes across the region.
Sinn Féin said it lodged a complaint with officials in the Ballymena count centre over the count procedures and length of time taken.
Ballymena was the last count centre to finalise proceedings, with the last two assembly seats declared in Mid Ulster shortly before 10pm on Saturday.
Mr McGuinness said holding three elections - including a referendum - on the one day complicated matters.
"I think the British Government are culpable, particularly adding the AV referendum to two elections," Mr McGuinness said.