CAN FAYE DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT NOW THAT SONKO CONTROLS IT?

CAN FAYE DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT NOW THAT SONKO CONTROLS IT?

It is the question sitting at the heart of Senegal’s current political standoff. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has done it before. But can he do it again now that his former ally Ousmane Sonko sits in the speaker’s chair?

The short answer is yes, but with conditions that make it far more complicated this time around.

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS

Under Article 87 of Senegal’s 2001 Constitution, the President of the Republic has the power to dissolve the National Assembly by decree. However, the constitution does not give him a blank cheque. Before signing any dissolution decree, the president is required to first consult two people, the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly. He does not need their approval, but he must seek their opinions.

Here is where the current situation becomes immediately awkward. The President of the National Assembly is now Ousmane Sonko, the very man Faye just fired. Faye would constitutionally be required to consult Sonko before dissolving the parliament Sonko now controls.

THE TWO-YEAR RULE

There is a second and arguably more decisive constraint. The Constitution prohibits the dissolution of the National Assembly during its first two years of existence. The current parliament was elected in November 2024, meaning it cannot legally be dissolved before November 2026 at the earliest.

Faye already used this exact playbook once before. In September 2024, after the previous opposition-dominated assembly blocked his constitutional reforms, he waited until the two-year mark was reached and dissolved parliament on September 12, 2024, paving the way for the November 2024 snap elections that handed PASTEF its landslide 130-seat majority.

THE BITTER IRONY

That election result, the one Faye triggered to free himself from a hostile parliament, is now the very thing protecting Sonko. PASTEF’s parliamentary dominance, built on the back of Faye’s own dissolution decision, is what installed Sonko as Speaker and what would make any future dissolution politically explosive within the ruling party itself.

Dissolving parliament now would mean dissolving PASTEF’s own stronghold, triggering fresh elections that nobody inside the party is certain of winning in the same dominant fashion, particularly with Sonko now positioned as the aggrieved hero of the movement.

THE VERDICT

Faye has the constitutional power to dissolve parliament, but not before November 2026, and not without first consulting the very man he sacked. Even after that window opens, the political cost of doing so would be enormous. It would split PASTEF, destabilise the country further, and hand Sonko the narrative of a president so threatened by his own parliament that he chose to burn it down.

The weapon exists. But using it may cost Faye more than it gains him.

TFY News