ABIDJAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The president of Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo declared in a statement that he is dissolving the government and election commission Friday.
"The government is dissolved," Gbagbo said on national television.
Cote d'Ivoire's electoral process is going through turmoil due to the political-judicial battle over voter registration contentions linked to the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).
The suspected fraud on the voter list has caused commotion within the body charged with the duty to organize elections to end years of instability in the West African country.
Cote d'Ivoire's government Thursday decided to suspend "to a later date" the judicial process over the vote list dispute, which many fear would jeopardize the planned presidential elections set for late February and early March.
According to a communiqué, the decision was taken after "consultations" between Prime Minister Guillaume Soro and President Laurent Gbagbo considering the "tense situation that has been created for some days now around the process of validating the provisional electoral list."
Protests broke out in various parts of the country following a decision by some supporters of Gbagbo to file legal cases with court for the removal of some people from the voter list.
The opposition called out their supporters to protest against the "false allegations." The protest marches resulted into riots causing serious injuries, destruction and fire to burn down public buildings.
The suspension of the judicial process is expected to pave the way for the preparation of the final electoral list ahead of the planned polls.
A total of 1.03 million people need to validate their registration on the provisional electoral list, which already has5.3 million lvorians.
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