“Diomaye-Sonko, a new season” is how the political scene is described after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dismissed his former prime minister Ousmane Sonko on 22 May. Just four days later, Sonko took the speaker’s chair at the National Assembly. Now two blocks are locked in confrontation over a constitutional reform: the executive versus the legislature, a true “clash of institutions.”
On 29 June, the National Assembly, where Sonko’s party — the Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) — holds 130 of the 165 seats, adopted a constitutional revision proposal. However, at the start of the debate, Justice Minister Me Moussa Sarr announced the text would ultimately be put to a referendum.
Overhaul of the institutional architecture
The proposal is divisive. All four amendments tabled by the government were rejected by the law commission. As a result, the review preceding the 29 June vote took place in a tense atmosphere. Opposition deputies walked out of the chamber in protest. The reform, driven by the majority born from the Pastef movement, is reshaping the country’s political landscape.
