Northern Ireland Secretary Rules Out Assembly Election Before New Year

Undated photo of Parliament Buildings, often referred to as Stormont, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. Paul Faith/PA

There will be no snap election in Northern Ireland before the New Year, the UK central government’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said on Friday.

In a written statement, the minister said the decision to rule out a Christmas election came after he listened to concerns from people across Northern Ireland. He also said he will make a statement in Parliament next week to lay out his plan.

Heaton-Harris is legally bound to call an assembly election within 12 weeks from Oct. 28 after Northern Irish politicians failed to form a functioning executive and an assembly by the deadline over a dispute about part of the UK’s Brexit deal concerning Northern Ireland.

Caretaker ministers at the Northern Ireland Executive had to leave their posts, putting the region into direct rule under Westminster in London.

It was previously believed that Heaton-Harris would set an election date on Oct. 28, but the minister opted to speak to party leaders in Northern Ireland before making a decision.

On Friday, Heaton-Harris confirmed that “no Assembly election will take place in December, or ahead of the festive season.”

The minister said he had listened to the “sincere concerns about the impact and cost of an election at this time” of people in the region, including business and community representatives.

He said he will update Parliament in Westminster next week regarding the next steps, adding that his objective is “the restoration of a strong devolved government” in Northern Ireland.

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Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian fighting among Irish nationalists and pro-UK unionists, the legislative and executive power in Northern Ireland must be shared between the largest unionist party, DUP, and the largest Irish republican party, Sinn Féin.

The executive stopped fully functioning in February after then-First Minister, DUP’s Paul Givan resigned in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol, which automatically triggers the removal of Sinn Féin’s Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill.

Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill in an undated file photo. Liam McBurney/PA

Following an assembly election on May 5, in which Sinn Féin surpassed the DUP to become the largest party in the assembly for the first time, the DUP refused to participate in forming a new executive or nominating an assembly speaker unless the UK government deals with the Protocol.

The assembly cannot carry out its function until a speaker is elected. Following a legislative change earlier this year, executive ministers, who were previously allowed to stay in post for two weeks after an election, can now remain for 24 weeks before a new election has to be called.

The deadline passed on Oct.28.

The Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the UK’s Brexit deal, left Northern Ireland in the E.U.’s single market to avoid a hard border between the region and the Republic of Ireland. But it has effectively put a trade border in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Northern Ireland Protocol

Following Heaton-Harris’s statement on Friday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has called on Twitter for a “razor-sharp focus” on getting a solution to the Northern Ireland Protocol, either by negotiating with the E.U. or legislating to unilaterally suspend parts of the deal.

“There is no solid basis for a fully functioning Stormont until [the Northern Ireland Protocol] is replaced with arrangements that unionists can support,” he wrote, adding, progress can only be made when both the unionists and the nationalists are aboard.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson Kirsty O’Connor/PA

Sinn Féin’s O’Neill said the delay is “unacceptable,” and accused Heaton-Harris of “adding to political instability.”

In a written statement, she said the British government is “fuelling the political instability caused by the DUP’s failure to recognise the result of the May election when the people voted for change.”

“The British government and the DUP are leaving us in a prolonged state of political limbo with no Assembly, Executive, or caretaker ministers,” she said.

It’s unclear whether the institutions in Northern Ireland can be restored after a new election, as the DUP has vowed to block their formation until the UK government takes “decisive action” on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

On his second day in office, the UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his Irish counterpart Micheál Martin that his preference regarding the solution to the Protocol “remained a negotiated outcome,” according to a Downing Street spokeswoman.

A Northern Ireland Protocol Bill that aims to unilaterally override parts of the protocol, brought forward by Liz Truss as one of her last acts as the foreign secretary, is currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords.