This trend led many observers to believe that the Conservatives were on course to overtake Miliband's party.
This is a highly ambitious target and most psephologists believe that Sinn Fein will probably see its share of vote increase, putting the party in a strong position to overtake the SDLP at the election after this.
The rise was lower than in previous years, but enough to overtake Marks & Spencer's entire UK revenue from non-food items.
The assembly has been suspended since 2002 over allegations of an IRA spy ring, while the "phantom" elections of 2003 saw Ian Paisley's hardline Democrat Unionist party (DUP) and Sinn Féin overtake their more moderate rivals.
Though many businesses are entering the market, other nations could still overtake Britain if the pace of progress slackens.
By the way, did I know women's salaries are starting to overtake men's?
And they say 'you are wrong and history will overtake you'... and I respect that".
The AEC told Guardian Australia there were just 645 pre-poll and postal votes left to process and count, making it unlikely that Mirabella, the incumbent Coalition MP, will overtake McGowan.
I'd not stopped all the way up and had even managed to overtake some wheezing bloke in the final quarter mile.
We used to overtake people; we used to win veteran competitions.
On Monday, Tony Abbott confirmed that Mirabella, who was shadow science minister, wouldn't be part of his first ministry, although he said he hoped she would "claw back" her deficit and overtake McGowan.
