Senegal’s president dissolves parliament

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dissolved the country’s opposition-led National Assembly on Thursday in a bid to break the tension between the legislature and the executive branch.

In a national address, Faye said snap elections will be conducted on Nov. 17 this year.

“By virtue of the powers conferred on me by Article 87 of the Constitution, and after consulting the Constitutional Council on the right date, the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly, on the expediency, I dissolve the National Assembly,” he said.

The move came six months after Faye was elected under an opposition platform.

He said the opposition-dominated legislature had made it hard for him to carry out the “systemic transformation” he promised during campaigns.

He asked voters to give his Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF) party a mandate.

The outgoing house, elected in 2022, was dominated by members of former President Macky Sall’s Benno Bokk Yakaar (United in Hope) coalition.

Tension between the executive and the legislature was reported recently after opposition lawmakers cancelled a budget debate and threatened to table a motion to censure the government.

The Benno Bokk Yakaar parliamentary group criticized the dissolution, saying it was aimed at avoiding the submission of a motion to censure the government by the parliamentary majority.

In a statement, the group accused President Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko of “manipulating institutions to serve their own political interests.”

“This dissolution is a blatant attempt to silence the parliamentary opposition and avoid any democratic debate on the management of the country,” said Abdou Mbow, president of the majority parliamentary group.