absent a government

ギリシャ政局はますます混迷の度合いを強めています。ユーロマーケットでは同国のユーロ圏からの離脱観測が強まっており、一度は回避されたはずの「ギリシャ危機」の暗い影がしのびよっています。国会に初めて議席を得た極右政党「黄金の夜明け」の呼称が空々しく響きます。

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Efforts to form a unity government in Greece failed Monday, moving the country closer to a eurozone exit as the president called for another meeting Tuesday to seek a solution.
Talks between Greek President Karolos Papoulias and the leaders of three main parties ended Monday night without a resolution, the president's office said.
Papoulias then called a meeting for Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a government run by technocrats with support from political parties, according to the leader of the socialist PASOK party, which attended Monday's talks.
"We have no choice" but to support the idea of a technocracy, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos said.
Absent a government, Greece could run out of money to pay its debts and might crash out of the euro, the currency used by it and 16 other European Union countries.

Greek government talks turn ugly
"If no government is in place before June when the next installment (of loan money) from the European Union and International Monetary Fund is due, we estimate that Greece will run out of money sometime between the end of June and beginning of July, at which point a return to the drachma would seem inevitable," Bank of America/Merrill Lynch wrote in a report released Friday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/14/world/europe/greece-politics/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

absent a governmentという形は初見です。その下にあるif no government is in placeという意味でしょうが、こういう省略用法は一般的になってきているのでしょうか。こちらも混迷です。（UG）