Gabon Court Dissolves Parliament Over Legislative Vote Delay

(Bloomberg) -- Gabon's Constitutional Court dissolved the central African nation's parliament and urged the president to name a transitional government because a deadline to hold legislative elections by April 30 wasn't met.

Parliament's functions will be taken over by the Senate until the vote, initially scheduled for December 2016, is held, the Libreville-based news site GabonActu reported, citing a statement Monday by Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo, the president of the Constitutional Court.

Mborantsuo also said the government should resign because it hasn't been able to update the voter's roll and establish a new electoral commission within the deadline. The Constitutional Court is set to announce a date for the legislative vote as soon as the members of the new commission have been sworn in. The last vote was held in 2011.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Mbog Batassi in Libreville at embogbatassi@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Michael Gunn

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