Stormont parties have until midnight on Thursday to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland as the latest legal deadline looms for calling a snap election.
But there is little sign of a fresh poll being announced by the Secretary of State having previously extended the period for forming an Executive.
Ongoing talks between the UK and European Union on Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol and the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April could persuade Chris Heaton-Harris to again push back the deadline.
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The Northern Ireland secretary has said he will "reflect on what I need to do" rather than immediately making a decision.
If a new Executive is not formed on Thursday, the UK government assumes a legal responsibility to call an Assembly election by April 13.
Legislation to extend the timeframe for forming an Executive beyond six months was introduced after the previous legal deadline of October 28 was missed.
The Secretary of State is expected to make a statement on the next steps on Thursday before the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.
With an election campaign lasting around six weeks, Mr Heaton-Harris would have to call a snap poll by around March 2 at the latest.
But the Northern Ireland secretary could decide to introduce another emergency bill in Parliament to once again extend the period for forming an Executive.
There may also be logistical challenges to the idea of holding a poll on the same date as the local government election on May 18, as some Assembly and council constituency boundaries do not match.
In the weeks before the previous October 28 deadline, Mr Heaton-Harris had repeatedly insisted he would call an election before eventually U-turning on his pledge.
He has not made similar warnings of calling an election in the run-up to the latest January 19 deadline.
Writing in The Irish Times, Mr Heaton-Harris said: "From tomorrow, if there is no Executive, I will once again be under a legal duty to hold elections to the NI Assembly in the next 12 weeks.
"I will use the next few weeks I have available to me to assess carefully all options about what happens next and to continue to talk to all interested parties before I make any decisions."
Asked last week if he would call an election the day after the deadline, the Secretary of State told reporters: "Not on that date no, as I've got 12 weeks to reflect on what I need to do."
The DUP has been blocking the re-establishment of the Stormont Executive and Assembly since elections last May in protest against the protocol.
It has said it will not resume power-sharing until decisive action is taken to remove the protocol's economic barriers on trade into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
Hopes of a deal between the UK and EU to resolve disputes over the protocol have been raised after an agreement was reached last week on post-Brexit data-sharing.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said calling an early Assembly election "wouldn't serve any purpose" and could "make it harder" to resolve the protocol impasse.
Speaking last week after talks with Stormont parties, he said: "Obviously a decision on whether an election is called is a matter for the Secretary of State and I respect that, but I don't honestly in my heart believe the election results would be very different.
"And I think when you get into the cut and thrust of an election campaign and all of the politics that's involved in that it might make it harder to come to an agreement in the next few weeks, so having that space I think would be much better."
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