The announcement comes despite Northern Ireland having no functioning decentralized government since February.
The British government will not hold new elections in Northern Ireland before the end of the year, according to the British minister in charge of the region.
The announcement came on Friday even though Northern Ireland has not had a functioning decentralized government since February, when the Pro-British Democratic Union Party (DUP) began a boycott over the Brexit trade deals.
The British government last week said it would call elections before the end of January, the second vote since May after London and Belfast failed to resolve the post-Brexit deadlock.
“I can now confirm that there will be no Parliamentary elections in December, or before the festive season,” Northern Ireland Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said in a written statement.
“Current law requires me to name an election within 12 weeks of October 28 and next week I will issue a statement to parliament setting out my next steps.” .
Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that essentially ended 30 years of sectarian bloodshed in the region, nationalists and collectivists were obligated to share their rights. power in a multi-community government.
The DUP has said it will not enter into a new government until checks introduced between some goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the UK are removed.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson defended his party’s stance, saying the protocol “harms our economy, harms our people, and prevents us from accessing medicines and other health care products. other essential supplies”.
Northern Ireland’s other political parties said they did not expect a break in the deadlock; Heaton-Harris said he had listened to “sincere concerns” in the region about the impact holding an election could have.
After meeting Heaton-Harris earlier this week, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney raised the prospect that London would change the law to delay an election further.
Technical talks have recently resumed for the first time in seven months over the Northern Ireland protocol, part of the Brexit deal requiring checks.
Currently, Sinn Fein is the largest party in the Northern Ireland Parliament, first replacing the DUP in the May election.
