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Ivory Coast president dissolves 'unity' government
Ivory Coast's president has dissolved the government and disbanded the election commission, throwing into doubt the political reconciliation process in a divided country that was about to hold elections.
"The government is dissolved," President Laurent Gbagbo announced in a recorded message late Friday broadcast on national television, specifying that Prime Minister Guillaume Soro will be asked to stay on to form a new government.
The move comes two months after the government last failed to hold presidential elections to either re-elect or replace Gbagbo whose term expired five years ago. A date for the election has been set–and then canceled–every year since 2005.
Tension rose this past week after Gbagbo's party demanded the resignation of the head of the independent election commission amid accusations he was behind an attempt to add almost 500,000 illegitimate voters onto the rolls. Opposition supporters, meanwhile, accuse the ruling party of trying to disqualify voters that are not allied with Gbagbo.