 Ben Sékou Sylla, the President of CENI, announced on 20 October 2008, that the election was being delayed and would be held in the second half of March 2009 at the earliest.He cited difficulties with biometric voter registration, as well as a "delay in setting up structures to register voters and supervise the elections" and a "delay in funding".Sidya Touré of the Union of Republican Forces, an opposition party, denounced the decision as "a political delay, not a technical one"; he also claimed that the government was unwilling to finance CENI and was inhibiting CENI's work.