B.C. Premier Christy Clark has ended months of speculation announcing there will be no fall election in the province.

Clark said voters will not go to the polls until May 2013, which is the next scheduled election date in B.C.

Clark said there appears to be no public appetite for an election at this time.

"I heard from people, 'Christy, we don't want an election ... We can't afford the instability that might come from an election.' So I gave that a lot of thought," Clark told CBC News after her announcement. "When I get a message from British Columbians as strongly as I got on this, I decided I needed to take it, I decided I needed to listen."

In a release Wednesday night, the B.C. NDP claimed the B.C. Liberal premier was backing away from an election call because her party would lose.

"Ms. Clark has made this decision for one reason and one reason only: she has concluded from her own polling she cannot win an election at this time," the statement said. "This is a government that is out of gas and out of ideas."

On Friday, Clark refused to answer directly a series of questions about the possibility of a fall vote, creating widespread speculation about her plans.

Clark was elected party leader at a B.C. Liberal convention in February and was sworn in as premier in March, hinting that a vote before the scheduled election might be in the cards so she could earn her own mandate from B.C. residents.

Clark replaced Gordon Campbell, who announced his resignation in November 2010.