New Election Possible In N.Ireland If Stalemate Continues: UK

Fresh elections could be held in Northern Ireland if a deadline passes without the resumption of power-sharing government in Belfast, a senior British minister indicated on Thursday

Dublin, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2023 ) :Fresh elections could be held in Northern Ireland if a deadline passes without the resumption of power-sharing government in Belfast, a senior British minister indicated on Thursday.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he would "assess carefully all options" if there is no change to the political stand-off sparked by a row over post-Brexit trading rules.

"The restoration of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland is an absolute priority for my government," Heaton-Harris wrote in the Irish Times before a British-Irish conference in Dublin.

"If this stalemate continues, sadly, I will have to do more," he added.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for almost a year because of a walk-out by the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

The DUP collapsed the power-sharing executive with pro-Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein in February 2022 because of its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The protocol, signed between London and Brussels as part of the UK's Brexit divorce from the European Union, governs trade in the British province, and keeps Northern Ireland in the European single market and customs union.

The DUP wants the deal overhauled or scrapped entirely, arguing it casts Northern Ireland adrift from the rest of the UK and makes a united Ireland more likely.

It had been due to share power with Sinn Fein, who became the biggest party in the assembly after elections last May.

"The DUP are hiding behind the protocol," Sinn Fein's first minister-elect Michelle O'Neill told a news conference in London.

"I suspect it's a lot more about the election result in May. I suspect it's because they don't want to serve alongside a republican first minister," she said.

Northern Ireland was created just over a century ago as a pro-UK, Protestant-majority entity under British rule, as Ireland cast off colonial governance from London and later became a republic.