The Stormont MLAs were unable to elect a new president during a recalled session of the Assembly on Friday.
It means that they have not been able to advance and hold positions in the Executive, including those of Prime and Deputy Prime Minister.
The deadline to appoint one after the May assembly election will expired at midnight.
Thus, Secretary of the North Chris Heaton-Harris is expected to call a new Assembly election, with Dec. 15 seen as the likely date for the vote.
During a two-hour debate in Stormont, the DUP was punished for refusing to share power again.
It said he will not facilitate new political institutions until his concerns about the Northern Ireland protocol have been addressed.
Northern Ireland’s Sinn Féin leader Michelle O’Neill said a joint authority must be introduced if power-sharing cannot be restored.
“Jeffrey Donaldson and the DUP are in a perpetual stand-off with the public, the majority of whom they do not speak for, or indeed represent. He stood for election yet failed to show up. This is his mess, and a failure of leadership by him and his party,” she said, reported RTE.
Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said he feared the institutions would never return.
“There we’re lots of angry voices in the chamber but they’re not as angry as the voices who are out there suffering in a cost-of-living crisis, who want the economy sorted out and who want their jobs protected,” reported RTE.
Alliance leader Naomi Long said the Northern Secretary should pass legislation to suspend Stormont, cut MLA salaries and provide Northern Ireland with a budget, while the EU and UK have negotiated changes to the protocol.
“I am ashamed to be part of this circus again today. We know elections in Northern Ireland do not solve problems, they deepen the crisis,” she said, reports RTE.
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