Northern Ireland could be looking at an Assembly election the week before Christmas.
It is reported that the Electoral Office has told parties here that the election is likely to be on December 15.
Responding to the news, Green Party councillor Brian Smyth said it would be "the nightmare before Christmas".
Read more: Simon Coveney: All efforts needed to avoid fresh Stormont elections
The DUP is blocking the functioning of the powersharing institutions as part of its protest against the Protocol that has created barriers on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Political opponents have heavily criticised the DUP boycott, insisting it is hampering efforts to support families struggling amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The party says the economic border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is exacerbating the inflation crisis and underlines the need for action.
The UK Government has vowed to secure changes to the protocol, either through a negotiated compromise with the EU or domestic legislation to empower ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels.
Current legislation says that unless Stormont is restored by October 28, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has to call fresh Assembly elections, something he has previously said he is prepared to do.
Earlier today Mr Heaton-Harris restated his intention to call an election if the Executive is not reformed by the end of this month.
He said he "can't see the space" for any emergency legislation to potentially avert the move.
Appearing at the Northern Ireland Affairs committee, Mr Heaton-Harris said he had discussed the ongoing paralysis at Stormont with his Cabinet colleagues earlier today.
"If we do not get a reformed executive by one minute past midnight on the 28th of October, I will be calling an election, that's what the law requires me to do, and that is what I will be doing," he told MPs.
"I know that lots of people really do not see or do not want that to happen but it is a legislative requirement."
He added: "The best solution would be having an executive up and running, without a shadow of a doubt. If we come back and people choose not to go into positions ... actually I think almost immediately the ministers fall away and it gives me a few tough decisions to make which I'd much rather not be taking but I'm fully cognisant of some of the issues that I've been reading about in the newspapers, being told about by real folk in real streets on real doorsteps that they're facing.
"Lots of things would be a lot easier if the executive were running and so my focus is trying to charm, beguile, coax everybody into that place, that they come back into the executive, and I'd like to think I will be successful, but if I'm not then I'm afraid it is an election."
DUP MP Ian Paisley pressed Mr Heaton-Harris on a likely date if an Assembly election is called at the end of the month, asking whether it would be December 8 or December 15.
Mr Heaton-Harris said he would "like to think it would be a relatively short campaign", and indicated Mr Paisley was "in the right zone", confirming it would be "before Christmas".
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