On Monday, the National Assembly elected its president, a technocrat close to Macky Sall. The session was marred by violence.
In Senegal, this Monday, the spectacle was of absolute sadness. "When the deputies trample on the last hopes of the Senegalese people", headlines Dakaractu this morning. The Senegalese press was indeed outraged by the behavior of the elected members of the National Assembly. However, promised the online newspaper, the election of the President of the Assembly "will have been the most breathless and perhaps the most controversial in a hemicycle". We expected an electoral battle. The battle will have taken place, and it sometimes took on the air of a fight. At the time of launching the ballot for the perch, deputies denounced defects of form and violations of the rules of procedure. Before the debates degenerated and the dean and president of the session, Aida Sow Diawara, asked the gendarmes to secure the premises.
But let's go back to the vote first. Because this is certainly the main thing after the last legislative elections. Whileopposition and presidential coalition had, in recent weeks, disputed the absolute majority of the National Assembly, Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) finally managed to rally to his cause the former president of Parliament, Pape Diop, who had been elected as an independent. Enough to ensure BBY an absolute majority.
Logically, therefore, Amadou Dame Diop was elected President of the National Assembly. Close to Macky Sall, the new President of Parliament was elected with the vote of the majority, the opposition having boycotted the election. An opposition which, however, had promised to make this day an event. Except that, despite a facade of unity, the opposition has seen its various leaders embark on a battle of egos which could cost it dearly...
Boycott and Blockade of Roost
Because if it does not have an absolute majority, the opposition could do well. Still, it would have had to agree to appoint a single candidate. Despite the stakes, the opponents did not manage to agree and thus rolled out the red carpet for the candidate of the presidential majority.
So much for the vote, which will remain anecdotal. Because this Monday, it is rather the cacophony that will remain in the annals. It all started with a gesture from Barthélémy Dias. The opponent did everything to block the vote, before the elected opposition members threw, each in turn, the ballot papers on the ground near the ballot box.
A violent protest, which was therefore followed by the seat of the perch, blocked. “Some see in it a notorious lack of respect for the institution that is the National Assembly,” laments the Senegalese press on Tuesday, which assures that supporters of Yewwi-Wallu are disappointed today. After the blockade of the perch, about twenty gendarmes had to intervene.
Four hours late and images worthy of the circus, the opponents finally left the National Assembly after a boycott that looks more like a defeat. Because this first test shows once again that the opposition is advancing in dispersed order. A bad signal sent for the next presidential election.