The Senegalese president, elected in March, has set legislative elections for Sunday, November 17, 2024. This dissolution aims to give him a stable majority to govern, while the Assembly was dominated by the camp of former president Macky Sall.
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Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, elected in March on the promise of profound change, announced on Thursday, September 12, that he was dissolving the National Assembly and setting legislative elections for Sunday, November 17, 2024. This dissolution aims to give him a stable majority to govern, while the previous legislature, elected in 2022 and dominated by the camp of former President Macky Sall, was hostile to him.
“I am dissolving the National Assembly to ask the sovereign people for the institutional means that will allow me to give substance to the systemic transformation that I promised them. Today, more than ever, the time has come to open a new timeframe to our five-year term,” the 44-year-old head of state said on national television.
According to him, the blockages of the last few days in the Assembly have convinced him that “the pledge of frank collaboration with the parliamentary majority (…) was an illusion. The latter having decided to turn away from the people to promote the cult of blockage and thus hinder the implementation of the project on the basis of which I was elected”he said.
A champion of left-wing pan-Africanism and sovereignty, the new government is raising huge expectations among the youth of this West African country, where three-quarters of the population are under 35. But the new authorities have still not undertaken any major projects, with some justifying this inaction by the lack of a majority in Parliament.