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Senegal’s president looks set to secure a crucial electoral victory that would enable him to implement his policy agenda.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s Pastef party is projected to win an absolute majority after Sunday’s legislative elections. A government spokesperson claimed a “large victory” and two opposition party leaders — including Amadou Ba, a former prime minister — conceded defeat before all votes were counted, according to reports. Official results are expected later on Monday or Tuesday.
Observer missions from the African Union and West Africa’s economic bloc ECOWAS noted that “calm” prevailed during the campaigns leading up to the vote, in stark contrast to the turbulence and violence of the two months that preceded Faye’s election in March.
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Faye dissolved parliament in September and called for the election. The move had been anticipated as politically necessary to secure the support base needed among lawmakers to enact his policies.
In the six months since becoming president, Faye has ordered audits of energy contracts, with a view to possibly renegotiating them. His administration’s 25-year development plan, unveiled last month, pledges to correct the “bad choices and bad practices of our governing elites since independence,” said Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko.
Senegal’s economy grew at 4.3% last year, having improved on 2022 by half a percentage point, according to the World Bank.
But Faye’s ambitious agenda targets economic growth of between 6.5 and 7% from 2025 to 2029, while reducing budget deficits to 3% from an average of 10.4% between 2019 and 2023.
Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Senegal last month after one of the Faye administration’s audits revealed “significantly higher past government budget deficits and a markedly higher debt burden than previously published.”
Senegalese laws require the president to consult with the National Assembly for budget approval. Pastef’s victory in the legislative elections will “ensure an alignment” between both branches of government that will be “a welcome outcome” for investors, said Mucahid Durmaz, senior risk analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.
Room for Disagreement
Faye’s predecessor Macky Sall has warned of the “irreversible damage” that could come from the present government’s rhetoric around contract audits and reviews of previous budgets.
He fears that Senegal could be left with “a very bad image” following the government’s decision to pause a $1.9 billion disbursement from the IMF as a result of what an audit revealed about the country’s debt situation.