YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The timing of elections in the Ivory Coast is uncertain now that President Laurent Gbagbo has dissolved the electoral commission, the BBC reports.
Gbagbo also dissolved the government Friday and told Prime Minister Guillame Soro to form a new one. He announced the move Friday in an announcement broadcast nationally.
The president accused the electoral commission head, Robert Beugre Mambe, of "running an illegal arrangement" and the commission of registering as many as 1,000 voters.
"I want a government that serves the interests of the Ivorian people and not the orders of political parties," Gbagbo said. "The mission of this new government will be, under the authority of the president and the prime minister, to complete the final actions necessary to bring Ivory Coast out of its political crisis."
Gbagbo was elected in 2000 to a five-year presidential term. Elections have been postponed frequently since 1997.
