By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – On Saturday the Ivory Coast opposition declared it will no longer support Laurent Gbagbo as president because he dissolved the government and electoral commission.

A spokeswoman for the opposition said the dissolution of the government on Friday night is the first step towards dictatorship which cannot be allowed to establish itself.

Neutral parties have also condemned the government dissolution.  “It runs in the fact of all the peace accords we’ve signed since 2004 . . . that today the president thinks he has the power to do this gives the impression that we’ve gone back twenty years into the past. ” said party secretary general Francois Kouablan.

Because of the oppositions refusal to support Gbagbo, the anticipated elections will be delayed further.  Gbagbo’s presidential term expired five years ago.  Since then, a date for elections has been set, and then canceled, every year since 2005.

“We want to have the elections as quickly as possible, but first we’re going to have to fix the rolls,”  said FPI election coordinator Martin Sokouri Bohui.

Tensions arose this past week after Gbagbo’s party accused the head of the independent election commission for attempting to add around 500,000 illegitimate voters into the rolls.  Accusations are coming from both sides as the opposition has accused the ruling party of trying to disqualify voters who were not allied with Gbagbo

At least a quarter of the nation’s twenty million people have been disqualified from voting based on the electoral law’s convoluted definition for determining eligibility, stoking the tension.

This anticipated election is aimed at ending the crisis that began with the attempted coup against Gbagbo in September 2002, which left the country split between the rebel-held north, which is mainly Muslim, and the government controlled south, which is mainly Christian.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Ivory Coast President Dissolves Government – 13 February 2010

AP – Ivory Coast Opposition Won’t Support President – 13 February 2010

VOA – Ivory Coast President Dissolves Government – 13 February 2010

Reuters – Ivory Coast’s President Dissolves Government – 12 February 2010