PREVIEW
The new president has won an overwhelming vote of confidence but now has to push through a tough budget
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s decision to make the most of his honeymoon with the voters and call early parliamentary elections on 17 November has paid off (AC Vol 65 No 20, Diomaye Faye asks the people for a bigger mandate).
His Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité (Pastef) will be the dominant political force in the country as long as it holds together.
Provisional results on 19 November suggest that the Pastef party is on track to take around three quarters of the seats in the National Assembly, with local media forecasting that Pastef will take 119 to 131 seats in the 165-member parliament.
Until the elections, Faye was reliant on support from 56 deputies and temporary allies in the outgoing parliament.
Even more than the presidential polls in March when Faye won in the first round, these elections are a decisive defeat for Senegal’s political establishment (AC Vol 65 No 7, Faye's victory shakes up the region). Macky Sall, whose chosen successor Amadou Ba was decisively beaten by Faye in March, had broadened his Takku Wallu coalition to bring in the Parti démocratique sénégalais (PDS) led by former President Abdoulaye Wade and his son Karim Wade, and Idrissa Seck’s Rewmi party.
Such tactics had little effect. Takku Wallu is expected to win around 15 seats in the new parliament.
If the election results hand President Faye an unambiguous mandate for the next four years, the other big winner is his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko who pushed for the early election decision. Sonko is set to have an even stronger influence on the government over the coming years. His relationship with Faye will be critical to the success of the government.
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