Published on : 04/08/2022 – 21:05Modified : 04/08/2022 – 21:40
The presidential camp lost the absolute majority in the National Assembly but remains in the lead by a very narrow lead following the legislative elections in Senegal, according to the provisional official results of the National Commission for the census of votes.
The presidential coalition claimed victory, contested by the opposition : following the legislative elections in Senegal, she finally lost the absolute majority in the National Assembly but remains in the lead by a very narrow lead, according to the provisional official results announced Thursday, August 4 by the National Commission for the Census of Votes (CNRV ).
For the first time since independence in 1960 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 .
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Coalition of President Macky Sall goes from 125 deputies in 2017 to 82, out of the 165 in the Assembly, according to the provisional official results.
The opposition confirms its momentum initiated during the local elections in January, particularly in certain large cities, and wins 80 parliamentary seats in total: 56 for the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition and 24 for that of Wallu Senegal – the two having formed an alliance for the legislative ones.
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.
These results might convince the President of the Republic Macky Sall, disavowed 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. Elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, he remains unclear regarding his intentions.
“Check the Minutes”
Macky Sall has promised that he will appoint a Prime Minister – a position he abolished in 2019 and then reinstated in December 2021 – within the party that won the elections.
After the vote, the figures coming from the departmental vote count commissions showed a very tight ballot and both sides claimed victory.
Yewwi Askan Wi (Liberate the People, in Wolof), the main opposition coalition, formed around Ousmane Sonko – who came third in the 2019 presidential election – allied himself for the elections with the Wallu Senegal coalition (Save the Senegal, in Wolof), led by ex-president Abdoulaye Wade, elected deputy on Thursday at the age of 96.
An official of this alliance contacted the Electoral Commission to ask it “the right to check the minutes (of polling stations) in order to make its observations and possible complaints within the legal deadlines”. Aïda Mbodj, another opposition leader, spoke Wednesday evening at a press conference of “ballot stuffing” and “prefabricated and unsigned minutes that they (the power) created themselves ” in localities in northern Senegal including Matam, Podor, Ranérou and Kanel, strongholds of President Sall.
“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, added Ousmane Sonko.
President Macky Sall, for his part, welcomed the smooth running of the elections “in calm, serenity and transparency, on the extent of the national territory”, Wednesday at the end of the Council of Ministers. “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”, underlined Macky Sall on Twitter.
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
The presidential coalition assures the Senegalese “the pursuit of reforms essential to the construction of a united, prosperous Senegal, in the rule of law” and calls “for the consolidation of (our) democracy and (our) Republic”, declared following the results Aminata Touré, her head of the list.
“The ruling coalition is at the end of its tether”
The vote took place on Sunday without major incident, with a participation rate of 46.64%, according to the CNRV.
International observers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Collective of Civil Society Organizations for the Elections (COSCE) noted the peaceful and transparent nature of the ballot.
The pre-campaign was marked by violent demonstrations because of the invalidation by the Constitutional Council of the holders of the national list of the coalition led by Ousmane Sonko, forced to give up taking part in the elections. These demonstrations had left at least three dead.
“The ruling coalition is at the end of its tether. The high cost of food, the increase in the price of water, the authoritarian practices around the demonstrations followed by deaths explain this vote-sanction once morest the president”, underlined to AFP political analyst Maurice Soudieck Dione.
With AFP