CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's President Alpha Conde has postponed a parliamentary election due to be held on July 8 while authorities resolve technical problems over voter registration.
The election, originally scheduled for last December, is suppose to mark the final step in the West African state's transition from military to civilian rule and enable it to unblock donor aid potentially worth billions of dollars.
The European Union has said it will only resume full cooperation after the election in Guinea, the world's largest exporter of aluminium ore bauxite.
"I want all prerequisites addressed and problems resolved before a realistic date (to hold the elections) is proposed," Conde said on Guinea national television on Friday evening after meeting election commission officials.
According to Guinea's constitution, the president has to confirm the date of an election 70 days before it is held.
Guinean opposition parties had objected to holding the election if ongoing disputes over voter registration and their representation in the country's election commission were not resolved.
The Guinean government had planned to carry out a reform of the voter registration process, including a census and new registration drive, but relented after opposition parties said it was unconstitutional to do so between the 2010 presidential and the upcoming parliamentary election.
The stand-off had heightened tension in the coup-plagued nation and had led to clashes between security forces and opposition supporters.
The voter registration process has been further delayed by what authorities said were technical problems after a French and later a South African company were brought in to oversee the computerisation of the electoral system.
In his television address, Conde said the technical issues concerned the transfer of voter registration details to the South African from the French company.
Conde, who won a hotly contested 2010 second-round presidential election against Cellou Dalein Diallo, has promised to heal the country's deep ethnic and political divisions, borne of decades of political turmoil since independence from France, but opposition leaders say he has made little progress.
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