Mixed victory. The presidential camp lost the absolute majority in the National Assembly but remains in the lead with a very narrow lead after the proclamation on August 4 of the provisional official results of the legislative elections of July 31 in Senegal.
The coalition of President Macky Sall, Benno Bokk Yakaar goes from 125 deputies in 2017 to 82, out of the 165 in the Assembly, according to the provisional official results of the National Commission for the Census of Votes (CNRV). For the first time in this West African country renowned for its stability, the party in power loses an absolute majority and will have to rely on other forces in Parliament to pass its laws.
The opposition, which just like the presidential camp had claimed victory, won 80 seats in total. “Yewwi Askan Wi” (Liberate the People in Wolof), the main opposition coalition formed around Ousmane Sonko won 56 seats. “Wallu Senegal” (Save Senegal in Wolof), led by ex-president Abdoulaye Wade, who became a deputy at the age of 96, won 24 seats.
The two political parties, which have formed an alliance for the legislative elections, confirm the dynamics of the opposition already initiated during the local elections in January, particularly in certain large cities. Three other MPs come from the ranks of three other small party coalitions.
The final figures must be published by the Constitutional Council within five days if there is no appeal. But the opposition is already contesting them. “We reject these results”, reacted Déthié Fall, representing the coalition Yewwi Askan Wi after the official proclamation. A little earlier in the day of August 4, he had seized the Electoral Commission to ask him “the right to check the minutes (of polling stations) in order to make its observations and possible complaints within the legal deadlines”which he said he was denied.
“The Yewwi Askan Wi coalition did not sign the CNRV minutes because we cannot accept this refusal”he said, adding that if she had had access to all the documents, “we were still going to see irregularities which were going to affect their vote and allow us to recover the two deputies that they took from us unduly”.
“We are not going to accept a confiscation of the victory. It is an enterprise of massive fraud orchestrated by politicians with certainly the complicity of the administration” territorial, had declared the day before Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the presidential election of 2019 and who intends to present himself in 2024.
President Macky Sall greeted him in a tweet “exemplary” of Senegalese democracy after the announcement of the official results.
I salute the Senegalese people, following the provisional proclamation of the results of the legislative elections, for the exemplary nature of our democracy, the credibility of our electoral system. I congratulate all the actors for the excellent organization and coverage of the election.
— Macky Sall (@Macky_Sall) August 4, 2022
These results could convince the Senegalese head of state, disowned by the ballot box, to give up the project which is lent to him to represent himself in the presidential election of 2024, say experts and observers. President Sall, elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, remains vague about his intentions. He promised that he would appoint a prime minister from the party that won the elections.