Ousmane Sonko has passed the three-month deadline. But, according to MPs close to the new regime in Senegal, several parliamentary provisions must be amended before the Prime Minister can make his General Policy Statement (DPG).
The subject has been controversial for several days. Nearly three months after his appointment, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has still not made a General Policy Declaration (DPG) as is customary within 90 days following the installation of the head of government in Senegal. Faced with the press on Wednesday June 26, the deputies of Yewwi Askan Wi (YAW, free the people in Wolof language) indicated that Sonko could not technically make a DPG because the internal regulations of the National Assembly do not do so. mention.
“The hearing of the Prime Minister is impossible since it does not appear in the internal regulations of the National Assembly,” declared Ayib Daffé, new president of the YAW parliamentary group, a minority in the National Assembly facing Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY, united for the same hope) close to former president Macky Sall (2012-2024).
He stressed that the provisions of Articles 97, 98 and 99 and Chapters 22, 23 and 24 must first be reinstated after the abolition of the post of Prime Minister by the former Head of State following his re-election in 2019, a measure to which Macky Sall will also return in 2021. This is why several withdrawn provisions were not included following this return, he justified.
Daffé denounced a “breach of the law”, the “separation of powers” and their “balance”, inviting his colleagues from the majority and the opponents of the new regime to instead call for a modification of the internal regulations in force in the Senegalese parliament. He specifies that Ousmane Sonko is not bound by deadline constraints since the current provisions do not mention the DPG, even less the motion of censure and the motion of confidence.
However, some opponents indicate that the new leaders are in a headlong rush, suspecting the Prime Minister of not wanting to face the fourteenth legislature currently sitting in the National Assembly. He would especially like to avoid a motion of censure by the deputies of the majority still acquired by the new opposition, a situation that would cause his resignation and that of his government.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye will be able, in accordance with the law, to dissolve parliament next September, after two years of the fourteenth legislature, and organize new legislative elections within three months at the latest. For several observers, this is the scenario that the new regime is playing to allow the head of government to make his DPG before a fifteenth legislature where he will have the majority.
The Senegalese newspapers this Thursday almost all had the same reading. Bés Bi notes that the YAW deputies are flying “to the aid of Sonko”, where Le Quotidien underlines that “YAW censors the DPG”, while Sud Quotidien considers that “the Prime Minister is not linked”, giving credence to the explanations members of this parliamentary group made up of around forty deputies. “We will contact the PM (for the DPG), but it is up to him to decide,” said Abass Fall, member of the group.
However, “this does not absolve him of his obligations to respect the Constitution” which clearly mentions the DPG for the Prime Minister, retorted former parliamentarian Babacar Gaye in L’Observateur, who notes that “Yewwi chains Sonko” , “a PM between morality and law”.
ODL/te/APA
