MADRID — The Catalan Parliament postponed a vote on Tuesday to re-elect Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the movement to break away from Spain, as president of the restive region, extending a standoff with Madrid that could force new elections.

Roger Torrent, the speaker of the Parliament, insisted that Mr. Puigdemont was the only candidate that separatist lawmakers would present, though Mr. Puigdemont refuses to return from Belgium, where he surfaced in late October to avoid prosecution in Spain for sedition and rebellion.

The postponement came after Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled on Saturday that Mr. Puigdemont could not be elected and sworn in without physically being present in the Catalan assembly. The court also warned Mr. Torrent and other senior members of the regional parliament that they could face criminal charges if they allowed a vote in absentia — possibly using a video link to Belgium — as Mr. Puigdemont had requested.

Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, held a referendum on independence on Oct. 1, despite a Constitutional Court ruling that it was invalid, and attempts by Spain’s central government to disrupt the vote; with anti-separatist voters largely boycotting the referendum, the proposition passed easily.