Elections to Northern Ireland's collapsed power-sharing government will beheld in October, it was predicted today.
Even though attempts to drag the peace process out of crisis have beendeadlocked for months, members of the loyalist Ulster Political Research Groupinsisted fresh polls to the Stormont Assembly are due within months.
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UPRG representative Mr Frankie Gallagher said senior members of the organisationwere briefed by "very reliable sources within political circles".
He said: "We have been told elections are going to be called in October."Elections to the devolved institutions in Belfast were twice called offearlier this year as London and Dublin failed to break the deadlock.
Despite demands from Sinn Fein for a ballot box battle, Mr David Trimble's UlsterUnionists refuse to share power with republicans until the IRA declares its waris over.
Unionist confidence has been shattered ever since an alleged IRA spy ringuncovered at Stormont last October forced the British government to suspend thefledgling administration.
Since then the UUP has been gripped by civil war as hardliners fight to seizecontrol from Mr Trimble.
Party officers were gathering tonight to set a date for yet another showdownmeeting of the ruling Ulster Unionist Council in a bid to end the bitterdispute.
PA