Dakar, June 28 (APS) – The parliamentary group Benno Bokk Yaakaar (BBY, opposition) through its , recalled on Friday that Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko had the obligation to make his General Policy Statement before the deputies in accordance with article 55 of the Constitution.
Many political actors, including opposition MPs, are demanding that the head of government quickly go to the National Assembly to deliver his DPG to the MPs, almost three months after his appointment.
But deputies from his political camp, through the Yewwi Askan Wi (YAW) parliamentary group, maintain that the Prime Minister’s hearing before the 14e legislature is currently impossible due to an inconsistency in the internal regulations of the National Assembly.
According to the YAW group, a 2019 amendment repealed the references to the government’s general policy statement and motion of censure.
Therefore, say the members of this group, it would be impossible for the Prime Minister to make his DPG.
Guy Marius Sagna, an influential member of parliament from the ruling party, asked the head of government “not to keep his general policy statement if the provisions relating to the Prime Minister have not been reintegrated into the internal regulations of the National Assembly.”
In response to the letter from the Yewwi Askan Wi MP, Ousmane Sonko replied that his general policy statement “is ready”.
However, it will be presented when the provisions of articles 97, 98 and 99 and chapters 22, 23 and 24 are reestablished.
”In the event of failure of the Assembly, by July 15, 2024, I will hold my General Policy Declaration before an assembly made up of the sovereign Senegalese people, partners of Senegal and a jury composed of academics, intellectuals and apolitical citizen actors. It will be an opportunity for a free, open and, undoubtedly, much higher quality debate,” he concluded.
During a press briefing, Abdou Mbow considered that the deputies of the Yewi Askan Wi parliamentary group, “believed they had to replace the Prime Minister by shamefully violating the sacrosanct principle of the separation of powers, urging the latter not to fulfill his obligation to make his general policy statement”.
The DPG “is a fundamental act” which allows “the newly appointed head of government to come and present to the National Assembly (…) his government programme as well as his priorities”, he indicated.
According to him, “the pretext of a false internal regulation or a legal vacuum on the DPG deadlines is simply fallacious and indefensible”.
Mr. Mbow recalled that these same YAW deputies had introduced a Motion of censure against the former Prime Minister Amadou Ba on the basis of the same internal regulations.
The president of the BBY parliamentary group believes that ”constitutional texts and their derivatives must always be interpreted in the sense of strengthening democracy and republican courtesy, abhorring any spirit of malice and bad faith”.
The parliamentary group calls on the President of the National Assembly to clarify the situation with the executive branch in order to obtain communication of the date set for the DPG.
Abdou Mbow announced that “in the face of what appears to be a clear desire to evade the constitutional rule of government accountability to the National Assembly, the Benno Bokk Yaakaar parliamentary group has initiated a reflection on reforms aimed at removing the articles that allow the President of the Republic to dissolve the National Assembly” in order to “definitively resolve the watertight separation of powers.”
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