EDINBURGH, United Kingdom -- The Scottish National Party (SNP) will hold a ballot to elect a leader to replace First Minister Nicola Sturgeon between March 13 and March 27, the party said on Thursday.

SNP National Secretary Lorna Finn said the results of the contest would be made public "as soon as the result has been determined and after the candidates have been advised".

"I am pleased to confirm that SNP NEC has tonight agreed a timetable for party members to select a new leader of our party and country," Finn said in a statement late on Thursday.

After more than eight eventful years as Scotland's first minister and SNP chief, Sturgeon, 52, said on Wednesday she lacked the "energy" to carry on and would step down.

Finn said the ballot to replace Sturgeon would open at noon on March 13 and will close at noon on March 27.

Nominations for the post opened Wednesday and would close on February 24, she said.

The SNP had decided to postpone a special conference aimed at reviving its troubled push for independence, Finn said.

"It would be wrong to have a newly elected leader tied to a key decision on how we deliver democracy in Scotland in the face of continued Westminster intransigence," she said.

There is no frontrunner to succeed Sturgeon, who was a towering presence in Scottish and UK politics, and no clear path forward on the dream of independence for Scotland from the United Kingdom.

Sturgeon had announced the conference for March 19 after the Supreme Court in London agreed that only the UK government, and not the Edinburgh parliament, could call a second independence referendum.

Scots voted in 2014 to remain part of the UK. But the SNP says the calculus was upended with Britain's Brexit referendum two years later, when a majority in Scotland opposed leaving the European Union.

Despite Brexit, the UK's Conservative government has ruled out a second plebiscite in Scotland. Sturgeon summoned the conference in a bid to chart a way out of the constitutional conundrum.

Her preferred path was to turn the next UK election, due by early 2025, into a "de facto referendum" on separation. But that has left many in the SNP nervous at the prospect of electoral blowback.

Sturgeon, 52, confirmed she would remain first minister until the SNP elects a new leader, and also stay on as a member of the Edinburgh parliament until at least the next Scottish election, due in 2026.

She departs after facing mounting pressure over her tactics on independence as well as over transgender rights.

Opinion polls suggest waning support for Scotland breaking away from the UK since the Supreme Court ruling.

Possible contenders in the SNP include Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Deputy First Minister John Swinney.