DAKAR: Senegal’s National Assembly passed a bill revising the balance of power between the country’s executive and parliament on Monday, prompting the president to announce a national referendum on the matter.

The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority in a tense atmosphere marked by heated exchanges, an opposition boycott and scuffles outside the building during which police used tear gas, journalists saw.

The measure strengthens the powers of the National Assembly and the prime minister, while effectively curtailing the powers of the president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye. The Pastef party, led by Faye’s rival and former prime minister Ousmane Sonko, proposed the measure. Faye fired Sonko as prime minister in May and Sonko was swiftly named speaker of the National Assembly, which is controlled by Pastef.

The opposition and various civil society organisations have criticised the amendment. “Parliament is being used to weaken the president. (The proposals) appear aimed at limiting the influence of the president of the republic by increasing the powers of the head of the National Assembly”, presidential coalition leader Aminata Toure said Sunday during a press briefing.

During Monday’s debates, Faye’s justice minister announced the president’s intention to put the matter to a vote, though no date was specified. Justice Minister Moussa Sarr told parliament ahead of the bill’s adoption that “the president has decided to inform the speaker of the National Assembly (Sonko) that he has decided... to put the adopted text to a referendum”. Sonko expressed scepticism that the president had the power to do so.

“I will ask the president of the republic to promulgate this law, plain and simple. A qualified majority of the National Assembly voted and secured the adoption and approval”, he argued. He claimed that under Constitutional Council precedent, the text is final if approved by three-fifths of the deputies present, which it was.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2026