It is appearing increasingly likely that voters will head to the polls before the year is out if the stalemate at Stormont is not resolved before Friday’s midnight deadline.

If the deadline is not met by Friday midnight, the UK Government assumes a legal responsibility to call another election.

Newly reappointed Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris reiterated his threat of an election in a tweet on Wednesday morning.

He said: “My priority is for NI’s political leaders to come together and restore the Executive. The people of Northern Ireland deserve a fully-functioning devolved government, so I understand the public’s frustration.

“However, if the parties will not re-form, I will call an election.”

EONI, the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, has begun plans for an election on December 15. Local poll clerks received letters seen by The Impartial Reporter at the start of the week advising that they have been offered positions.

The letter states: “This offer is wholly dependent on an election taking place. If an election is not called by October 28 you will not be required to work but will be held on a staffing list for the next election.”

The DUP has refused to engage with the devolved institutions in Belfast in the wake of May’s Assembly election, meaning it has not been possible to form an Executive.

The party’s boycott is part of a campaign of opposition to the Brexit-related Northern Ireland Protocol, and the DUP says it will not return to powersharing until decisive action is taken to remove the protocol’s economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Westminster has vowed to secure changes to the protocol, either by a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed domestic legislation – the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – which would empower ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels.

However, the European Commission has warned that such unilateral action would be in breach of international law and could prompt retaliatory action.

Some commentators, including Sinn Féin, have argued that the British and Irish governments will have to consider joint authority if devolution does not return.

During yesterday’s sitting of the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there cannot be direct rule from Westminster in the event of powersharing not being restored.

Mr. Martin said if the institutions are not reformed in time, the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference “kicks in”.

“The Good Friday Agreement provides for meetings of that, in respect of close consultation with the Irish government in terms of matters pertaining to Northern supplements.

“In the event that there is a sustained period with no functioning of the Northern Ireland Executive body assembly, there cannot be a return to the direct rule arrangements of the past.

“And the [Irish] government will fully pursue its consultative role under the Good Friday Agreement – that is the position, that we will exhaust every possibility within that framework if there is a sustained period of absence of the Executive or the Assembly.”ive or the Assembly.”