A court in Bamako on Monday referred the dispute over the dissolution of political parties – a government decision that the opposition is seeking to overturn – to Mali's Constitutional Court.

The court's decision, confirmed by lawyers representing the banned political parties, followed the government's announcement in May that political parties and organisations of a political nature across the country would be banned.

Members of the parties filed appeals to several courts in Bamako, seeking to challenge the legality of the presidential decree enacting their dissolution and its consequences.

The courts initially rejected the opposition parties' appeals, prompting them to take the case to the Bamako High Court.

'Streamlining' the numbers of political parties

That court on Monday ordered "the transfer of the case to the Constitutional Court via the Supreme Court", according to the lawyers' statement.

About 300 political groups have been identified in Mali to date and the transitional government maintains that dissolution is a way of streamlining numbers.