Bar an almighty climbdown from the Northern Ireland secretary, a snap Stormont election is at this stage unavoidable.
With no ministerial Executive formed by the six-month deadline, there will be a legal responsibility on the UK Government to call an early Assembly poll.
Chris Heaton-Harris does not need to act immediately - the law only requires the vote to happen in the next 12 weeks - but he has insisted he will call an election at "one minute past midnight on October 28".