Catalonia's parliament suspends vote on jailed candidate

BARCELONA, Spain – The speaker of Catalonia's parliament has suspended a scheduled vote to elect a jailed separatist leader as the new regional president of the restive northeastern corner of Spain.

Speaker Roger Torrent announced to the chamber on Saturday that there would be no vote on the candidacy of Jordi Turull, a former regional minister.

Turull was one of five high-profile separatists sent to jail without bail on Friday by a Supreme Court judge for their alleged role in a failed independence bid by Catalonia from the rest of Spain in October.

The separatist majority of the Catalan parliament had the chance to elect Turull on Thursday, but the far-left wing of its bloc sunk his chances by abstaining.