Senegal will vote in snap parliamentary elections in mid-November after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dissolved the opposition-dominated chamber, a move he’s banking on to implement his policy agenda.
Faye swept to presidential victory on March 24 with a promise of a radical change, following three years of turmoil and a political crisis.
Along with his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, Faye ran on a ticket of social justice, sovereignty and leftist pan-Africanism — raising hopes in the West African nation battling a high cost of living and unemployment.
But a parliament dominated by the coalition of former president Macky Sall has so far hampered government action.
Senegalese voters will return to the polls on November 17 to elect a new national assembly, Faye said in a televised address Thursday evening.
For many, the news did not come as a surprise.
“Everyone knew that it wasn’t really the assembly we needed”, Dakar resident Malick Ndione told AFP.
“To enable them to run things properly, the majority in the assembly has to be on their side”, he added.
Faye and Sonko’s camp has a good chance of winning the parliamentary polls, said Elhadji Mamadou Mbaye, a political science lecturer at Gaston-Berger University in the northern city of Saint-Louis.
“People are aware that they need this majority”, he said.
“Historically, Senegalese voters have always stuck with their vote during the presidential election to give a comfortable majority to the newly elected government”, and this should be the same in November, wrote state-run daily Le Soleil.
Senegal’s legislature was elected in 2022 and, according to the constitution, could not be dissolved by the president until it had sat for at least two years.
That deadline passed on Thursday.
‘Cult of deadlock’
The political earthquake which made Faye the youngest head of state in Senegal’s history sent expectations soaring amongst the population, three quarters of whom are under 35 with many struggling to make ends meet.
Scores of Senegalese continue to risk their lives in a bid to reach Europe across the perilous Atlantic route.
At least 39 people died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the western port of Mbour on Sunday.
Despite a tug-of-war with the legislature, the government has so far launched audits into the management of public money, initiated a project for justice reform, and lowered the prices of household products such as rice, sugar and oil.
But major action plans are yet to materialise.
On Thursday, Faye said the legislature had turned away “from the people to promote the cult of deadlock”.
He said the political impasse was impeding “the implementation of the project on the basis of which (he) was elected”.
Organising elections in such a short timeframe raises a number of uncertainties, including questions over whether to revise the electoral rolls or whether to maintain the candidate sponsorship system.
The dissolution of parliament poses a “major risk” to public finances, Charles Emile Abdou Ciss, a former director of Solde, the body managing the state’s payroll, said on Facebook.
He voiced concern that the amended 2024 and 2025 budgets will not be passed.
Supporters of former president Sall have also accused Faye and Sonko of playing political games, using the call for elections to derail a censure motion against Sonko’s government and to delay a presentation of their policy programme.
“We want to judge them on their achievements, and for the moment that’s not possible. Until now, they’ve had this alibi” of a hostile parliament, but that should soon no longer stand up, said university lecturer Mbaye.
