The proposal was rejected by parliament, dominated by the coalition led by the party of former President Macky Sall.
September 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has said that the opposition-dominated parliament’s rejection of the proposed amendment to the constitution is a sign of “the deep rift” between lawmakers and the “aspirations” of the population following his victory in the March 2024 elections.
Faye’s spokesman, Ousseynou Ly, stressed that the president “takes note of the decision of the majority deputies” and “reaffirms his commitment to act in respect of the plural political positions, essential in the democratic game and the balance of powers.”
The proposal, which would have seen the elimination of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) and the High Council of Territorial Collectivities (HCCT), was rejected on Monday by Parliament, controlled by the opposition coalition Benoo Bokk Yakaar (BBY), which announced shortly afterwards that it would also present a motion of no confidence against the government, headed by Ousmane Sonko.
The initiative was put forward by the President of Senegal, who called an extraordinary meeting to vote on the proposal, as part of his stated efforts to rationalise spending and reform public management in the African country.
In this regard, Ly has indicated that the president has opted since his victory at the polls for “a social pact of public governance that is bound by an institutional reorganization of the State bodies, which necessarily implies a systematic rationalization.”
“The abolition, already effective, of the National Commission for Dialogue in the Territories (CNDT), as well as that of the HCCT and the CESE, submitted to the National Assembly for evaluation (…), is in line with the presidential orders on the rationalisation of public spending,” he concluded, according to a statement published by the Presidency through its account on the social network Facebook.
The decision by parliament and BBY’s announcement of a no-confidence motion against Sonko’s government – an opponent of now ex-president Macky Sall and an ally of Faye – could lead to another political crisis in the African country, which held presidential elections in March after months of instability.
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