[JURIST] Ivory Coast [JURIST news archive] President Laurent Gbagbo [BBC profile] on Friday dissolved [France24 report, video] the country's parliament and electoral commission based on allegations of voter fraud in the long delayed presidential elections in the African nation. On disbanding the government, Gbagbo charged Prime Minister Guillaume Soro [BBC profile] with creation of new government and deciding on a new election format. Gbagbo had accused Beugre Mambe, the head of the independent electoral commission, of fraud by attempting to register over 400,000 whom Gbagbo considers to be foreigners. Opposition parties such as the Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI) [party website, in French] and Republican Gathering Party (RDR) [party website, in French] have said that most of those voters are ethnic groups in the north of the country, who would likely have voted against Gbagbo.

Gbagbo was elected president in 2000 to serve a five-year term, but he has managed to stay in office after elections after six successive elections have been delayed. The now deposed government had been the product of peace negotiations [AFP report] in 2007 between Gbagbo's government and northern rebels. Prior to 2007, the Ivory Coast had been divided into a southern region controlled by the government and a northern region controlled by rebel forces after a failed coup attempt in 2002, which started the country's Civil War [Reuters timeline].