The presidential camp in Senegal came in slightly ahead after the legislative elections of July 31, according to the final results, but will keep an absolute majority in the National Assembly thanks to a new alliance.

President Macky Sall's coalition has 82 deputies, down from its 125 deputies elected in 2017, out of the 165 in the Assembly, said Thursday evening the Constitutional Council, which confirmed the provisional figures announced on August 4 by the National Vote Counting Commission (CNRV).

But she obtained an absolute majority of 83 deputies, against 82 in total for the opposition, with the rallying of an opposition deputy, Pape Diop, former president of the National Assembly and the Senate.

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Pape Diop announced Thursday that he had "taken the decision to (join)" the presidential camp to avoid in Senegal "a blockage in the functioning of the institutions", during a press conference in Dakar.

"Given the presidentialist nature of our political system, a National Assembly placed under the control of the opposition will inevitably lead to an institutional crisis" carrying "all the dangers", he explained.

The saving alliance 

The National Assembly would then be transformed "not into a counter-power but rather into a bottleneck to the action of the President of the Republic and his government", estimated Pape Diop.

The opposition alliance won 80 parliamentary seats, including 56 for the "Yewwi Askan Wi" coalition led by main opponent Ousmane Sonko and 24 for that of "Wallu Senegal", led by ex-president Abdoulaye. Wade (2000-2012), according to the Constitutional Council.

The other two opposition MPs come from the ranks of two other small party coalitions.

The opposition alliance had announced that it would not appeal to the Constitutional Council, for lack of confidence, according to it, in this jurisdiction that opponents present as being under the thumb of power, which has always rejected this allegation. .

Yewwi Askan wi also complained on August 4 about the CNRV's "refusal" to let it "verify" the voting records in four localities in the north of the country, in a stronghold of President Sall.

The opposition had announced that it was aiming for a victory in the legislative elections to impose cohabitation on President Sall and push him to give up the project which is lent to him to run for president in 2024.

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.

With AFP

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