The News
Senegal’s president hoped calling a legislative election would shore up his power in Parliament. But a new opposition movement and uncertainty about the strength of his alliances means the outcome of his move is unclear.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye announced the dissolution of Parliament late last Thursday and called for a parliamentary election on Nov. 17. Opposition politicians, most of whom were in the party of Faye’s immediate predecessor Macky Sall, had made up the majority of the legislature. Faye hopes to secure more seats in the election to ease the path of his legislative agenda through Parliament, say analysts.
But, despite Faye having been swept to power in a presidential election in March, his PASTEF party is not assured of securing a majority. Senegal’s National Assembly was made up of a 51%-49% balance, with Sall’s BBY coalition making up the slim majority. But each political party has few reliable allies.
Former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, who was defeated by Faye in the presidential election, launched a political movement in recent days that could also affect the electoral map.
His movement pledged to “build solid alliances” and “usher in a new era of institutional dialogue and shared progress.”
Political essayist Souleymane Gassama, also known as Elgas, told Semafor Africa that Faye’s gamble could backfire. “Discontent is not general, yet, but the state of grace is running out of steam,” he told Semafor Africa.
In this article:
Know More
Faye took the step to dissolve Parliament after a number of clashes over planned legislative changes.
“The pledge of open collaboration with the parliamentary majority in the interests of the Senegalese people has been an illusion,” said Faye when he announced the dissolution of Parliament.
He criticized the “refusal” of lawmakers to uphold the mandatory budget debate scheduled on June 29, and the move by Parliament on Aug. 29 to block attempts by Faye’s coalition to abolish two advisory bodies that Faye’s coalition deemed unnecessary and vowed to dismantle during the presidential campaign.
Joël’s view
Faye may have jettisoned a legislature where his party and allies were in the minority, but the parliamentary electoral math remains difficult ahead of the Nov. 17 poll. First, the current government coalition is still technically in the minority in Parliament, hence the dissolution.
Secondly, Amadou Ba’s base accounts for a third of the electorate, judging by the last presidential election.
Faye and his party can’t count on the support of all supposed allies. Some members of parliament joined Faye and Sonko’s coalition as a way to oppose Sall, but without fully supporting their overall platform. Some of them have already been disappointed by the government over the perception that it has reneged on promises, such as the idea of opening public jobs to open candidacies instead of appointing their own people directly.
“We can’t rule out the possibility of the country finding itself again with the current figuration, with half the National Assembly voting for the current government, and half of it rooting for the opposition,” said Gassama.
But, irrespective of whether Faye’s gamble pays off, it’s clear that the disjointed relationship between the presidency and Parliament wasn’t sustainable. Maurice Soudieck Dione, a politics professor at the Université Gaston Berger of Saint-Louis, in Senegal, said the president had to act to give himself the best chance of transforming his proposals into laws.
“There needs to be some coherence between the presidential and parliamentary majorities so that the president can concretely implement the program on which he was elected,” Dione told broadcaster RFI.
Room for Disagreement
A political activist opposed to Sall, the former president, said the dissolution of parliament was the start of a clear transition in the way the country was being run. “The country is moving from a rather grotesque situation to a semblance of normality,” Dakar-based Balla Dièye told Semafor Africa.