Gambiaj.com – (DAKAR, Senegal) – Senegal’s National Assembly, controlled by Ousmane Sonko’s PASTEF-Les Patriotes, has approved a series of legislative proposals and parliamentary inquiries that collectively pile fresh political pressure on President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, deepening the increasingly public rift between the country’s two most powerful political figures.
The decisions, announced after meetings of the Assembly’s Bureau chaired by Speaker Ousmane Sonko on July 17 and July 23, come barely hours before President Diomaye is expected to officially launch his own political movement on Saturday after breaking ranks with Sonko.
The parliamentary offensive is widely seen as the latest chapter in the struggle for control of Senegal’s ruling camp, which intensified after President Diomaye dismissed Sonko from government earlier this year.
Since then, several prominent PASTEF officials and senior figures have left Sonko’s camp to align themselves with the president’s emerging coalition, raising the stakes in what has become an open contest for political dominance.
Parliament turns scrutiny on the presidency
Among the proposals declared admissible by the Assembly’s Bureau is a constitutional amendment to Article 37 concerning the declaration of assets by the President of the Republic. If adopted, the reform would alter the legal framework governing presidential asset disclosure, placing one of the country’s highest offices under renewed legislative scrutiny.
Lawmakers also approved a bill aimed at regulating special budgetary allocations and other secret government funds, a measure that could significantly restrict executive discretion over sensitive public expenditures.
While presented as governance reforms, the initiatives place the presidency under greater parliamentary oversight at a time when relations between Sonko and Diomaye have reached their lowest point since they jointly led Senegal’s political transition.
A barrage of parliamentary investigations as Sonko leverages his majority
The Assembly also cleared several requests to establish parliamentary commissions of inquiry, most of them submitted by the PASTEF parliamentary group.
The proposed investigations cover alleged irregularities in land allocations and the management of the public maritime domain; the sale of state-owned properties to private individuals; the management of tax exemptions and abandoned state revenues; the awarding and renewal of fishing licenses; and alleged procurement irregularities in the Ministry of Higher Education’s “One Student, One Computer” program.
Another proposed inquiry, submitted by the opposition TAKKU-WALLU coalition, seeks to investigate the government’s alleged use of sophisticated financial instruments known as Total Return Swaps (TRS).
Taken together, the proposals represent one of the broadest packages of parliamentary investigations initiated in recent years.
Although no longer part of the executive, Sonko continues to command a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, giving him the institutional means to shape the legislative agenda despite his removal from government.
Critics often describe this dominance as a “mechanical majority“, a numerical advantage that allows Sonko’s allies to push through parliamentary initiatives with limited resistance.
The latest decisions demonstrate how Sonko is increasingly relying on parliament as his principal political platform, using legislative oversight and investigations to challenge the executive led by President Diomaye.
More political battles ahead
Under Senegalese law, the President of the Republic and the Minister of Justice have now been formally consulted by the Speaker of the National Assembly and must issue their opinions within the prescribed legal timeframe before the proposals can advance.
The timing of the parliamentary offensive is likely to fuel speculation that institutional rivalry is replacing the once-close political partnership between Sonko and Diomaye.
With the president preparing to unveil his own political party and more senior PASTEF figures defecting to his camp, Senegal appears headed into a new phase in which the battle for control of the country’s governing majority will be fought simultaneously in parliament and on the political stage.
For observers across West Africa, the developments mark a remarkable reversal. Just over two years after Sonko and Diomaye presented themselves as partners in a shared reform agenda, they now find themselves leading rival centers of power, with parliament emerging as one of the principal arenas of their political confrontation.
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