Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams has described the political situation in the North as "dismal" and said there may be no Assembly elections within the next year.
Mr Adams said the British government risked losing all the progress made in recent years if a poll was not held as soon as possible.
"Our focus has been to get the British government to set a date certain, without preconditions for an election," the west Belfast MP said. "I can see no way of empowering the situation in the absence of that.
"I think that the British government not only made a mistake in stopping the election but I think that they themselves perhaps are reflecting on that because what has happened within unionism hasn't improved," Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams insisted the situation on the ground had improved but he warned that all the progress could be lost if elections were not called.
"My fear is that the crisis within unionism and more particularly, the crisis within the British system, and we've seen this on the larger international scale and within British domestic policy and politics in recent weeks.
"The twin difficulties of being unable to embrace change within political unionism, but more particularly within the British system, could mean that we risk losing all that has been put together," he said.
PA