Dakar, June 27 (APS) – The daily newspapers received by APS on Thursday echo the debate relating to the general policy statement (DPG) not yet made by the Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, almost three months after his appointment as head of government.
The deputies of the Yewwi Askan Wi (YAW) parliamentary group, who belong to the camp of the new power embodied by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his head of government, “highlighted yesterday an ‘inconsistency’ in the internal regulations of the National Assembly” , reports Le Soleil.
The internal regulations of the National Assembly “no longer take into account the position of Prime Minister since its last modification in 2019”. And as a “direct consequence” of this failure, the YAW deputies invoke “the impossibility of a general policy declaration”, writes Le Soleil.
The Yewwi Askan Wi parliamentary group wants to be “formal: the debate around the general policy statement agitated by the former ruling party and its supporters does not oblige the current head of government, Ousmane Sonko”, to present his DPG within three months after his appointment, notes Sud Quotidien.
“For Ayib Daffé and the deputies of Yewwi Askan Wi, adds the same newspaper, the hearing of the Prime Minister before the 14e legislature is ‘currently impossible’. For the simple reason that” this question, as well as those relating to “the motion of censure, are repealed in the new version of the internal regulations of the National Assembly”.
The daily Yoor-Yoor, quoting MP Ayib Daffé, takes up the same argument by stating that there is “no provision for the organization of a general policy statement, a motion of censure and a question of confidence”.
“Yewwi Askan Wi unloads Sonko”, headlines WalfQuotidien. “If we rely on the explanations of the deputies of the parliamentary group of Yewwi, the Prime Minister […] will not make a general policy statement,” the newspaper wrote.
The hearing of the head of government does not appear “in the internal regulations, according to them, it is therefore impossible for the moment”, adds WalfQuotidien.
A “major flaw” in the internal regulations of the National Assembly
Yewwi Askan Wi “censors” the DPG, because if the general policy declaration is indeed provided for in the Constitution, it “does not appear in the internal regulations of the National Assembly”, underlines the newspaper Le Quotidien, quoting the same deputy.
“Ayib Daffé speaks of falsifying a document by adding provisions that have not been revised,” the same publication continues. Vox Populi speaks of a “major flaw in the internal regulations of the National Assembly.” “The improbable general policy statement of the Prime Minister,” it is titled.
A “imbroglio,” notes the daily EnQuête, repeating the same arguments served by MP Ayib Daffé, as the daily 24 Heures, L’Evidence or Rewmi Quotidien. “Sonko will play on a delayed basis,” affirms the latter, to say that the Prime Minister’s address to the Assembly will not take place now.
“Yewwi Askan Wi to the aid of Sonko”, we read on the front page of the daily Bés Bi Le Jour, which quotes another MP, Abass Fall, who declares: “We are going to contact the Prime Minister, but it is up to him to decide.”
Source A notes that “it smells like a delaying tactic”. Beyond the arguments served by Yewwi Askan Wi’s deputies, Tribune asks: “What is Sonko really afraid of?”
The daily L’As endorses the same question, estimating that the fact of being a minority in the National Assembly cannot justify the Prime Minister being exempt from the general policy declaration.
“Even if the internal regulations of the National Assembly do not say so, he should still obtain the political approval of the populations to lead the nation’s policy. He must therefore appear before it to tell them what he intends to do,” comments L’As.
Former minister Zahra Iyane Thiam, member of the Alliance for the Republic, the political party of former President Macky Sall, defends the same position. “There is no legal obligation stipulating a three-month time limit for this [DPG]but the general policy declaration, presented within a reasonable time frame, can “strengthen the political position of the Prime Minister”, she says.
Censorship motions “never prospered”
Former MP Babacar Gaye notes that the general policy statement “is a constitutional obligation”. “We cannot hide behind the National Assembly’s failings to exempt the Prime Minister” from the obligation to make his DPG, writes the newspaper Les Echos, quoting Mr Gaye.
Le Quotidien believes that the Yewwi Askan Wi group “accepts for Sonko what it refused to Amadou Ba”, the last Prime Minister in office under the presidency of Macky Sall, who ceded power to his successor last April. “By proposing a motion of censure against Amadou Ba, did the deputies not know that the internal regulations of the National Assembly were ‘falsified’?” wonders Le Quotidien.
“The Prime Minister’s general policy statement […] is on everyone’s lips, while the head of government still has time, if we refer to the deadline of ninety days [qui lui est imparti]. Better, history has shown that heads of government, from 2000 to the present day, have not always respected this deadline,” reports L’info.
“Regarding the motion of censure that could be filed against his government, the newspaper notes, the head of the Prime Minister’s office should not have any worries either, even if the configuration of the National Assembly has changed significantly.”
The newspaper adds that history has shown that censure motions “can be inconvenient, but […] never prospered, except against the government of Mamadou Dia, in the early 1960s, “in a context of disagreement between him and President Senghor and in incredible conditions”.
Le Soleil is temporarily moving away from this somewhat controversial subject to a more consensual one that makes its front page. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye “draws the contours” of new industrial and budgetary policies, we read on the front page of the newspaper.
He reports that during the Council of Ministers held on Wednesday, the Head of State “presented to the government his vision in terms of budgetary management and the new national programme for restructuring and rehabilitation of the industrial fabric”.
BK/ESF
