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 Thursday August 4, 2022 of provisional official results of the legislative elections of July 31 au Senegal.
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 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 of the National Commission for the Census of Votes (CNRV) published Thursday.
The opposition confirms its momentum already initiated during the January local elections, particularly in certain large towns, and wins 80 parliamentary seats in total: 56 for the “Yewwi Askan Wi” coalition and 24 for that of “Wallu Senegal” which won formed an alliance for the legislative elections.
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 could convince the President of the Republic, 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. President Sall, elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, remains vague about his intentions.
He promised he would appoint a prime minister – a post he cut in 2019 and then reinstated in December 2021 – from the party that won the election.
After the vote, the figures coming from the departmental vote count commissions showed a very tight ballot and both sides claimed victory.
“Rejected” results
“Yewwi Askan Wi” (Free the People in Wolof), the main opposition coalition, formed around Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the 2019 presidential election, has joined forces with the “Wallu Senegal” coalition for the elections. (Save Senegal in Wolof), led by ex-president Abdoulaye Wade, elected deputy this Thursday at the age of 96.
“We reject these results”reacted Déthié Fall, one of the leaders of this alliance after the official proclamation.
A little earlier in the day, he had seized the Electoral Commission to ask him “the right to check the minutes (of polling stations) in order to make observations and any complaints within the legal deadlines”which had been refused to him, according to his statements.
Ms. Aïda Mbodj, another opposition leader, had spoken the day before about “ballot stuffing” and of “prefabricated and unsigned minutes that they (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 a massive fraud enterprise orchestrated by politicians with certainly the complicity of the administration” territorial, had added Mr. Sonko.
” Breathless “
“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”tweeted President Macky Sall on Thursday evening.
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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 call “to the consolidation of (our) democracy and (our) Republic”said after the results Aminata Touré, his head of the list.
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 had been marked by violent demonstrations which had caused at least three deaths due to the invalidation by the Constitutional Council of the holders of the national list of the coalition led by Mr. Sonko, forced to give up participating in the elections.
“The ruling coalition is on its last legs. The high cost of food, the increase in the price of water, the authoritarian practices around the demonstrations followed by deaths explain this sanction vote against the president “political analyst Maurice Soudieck Dione told AFP.
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