Indirect elections for another one third of the Senate seats were originally scheduled for 24 April 2011, but they were postponed twice due to the inability of the government and a coalition of opposition parties to agree on the opposition's demand that the Electoral Code be rewritten, the ruling coalition dissolved, and laws regulating the media reformed. The opposition coalition indicated it would not participate in elections until its demands were met. The majority and opposition parties engaged in a national dialogue from 17 September to 19 October to resolve their political impasse, but no timetable for Senate, National Assembly, or municipal elections had been established by the end of 2011. The Constitutional Council subsequently ruled that a delay of parliamentary elections through May 2012 would be legal.
