legislative poll a test for ruling party’s influence ahead of 2024 vote – The North Africa Post

As polls have closed in Senegal’s parliamentary elections Sunday, both the ruling and the opposition parties claimed victory Monday as provisional vote tallies came in.

The ruling coalition’s former prime minister Aminata Toure announced on national television that the party had been elected to 30 of 46 administrative offices.

“This undoubtedly gives us a majority in the National Assembly,” she said, adding that Presidenr Macky Sall’s ruling coalition will hold on to its majority.

The main opposition coalition, which hopes that the vote will force a alliance with President Sall, and curb any ambitions he may have for a third term in office, stated Monday that it had defeated the ruling party in most of its departments.

“The provisional results from the legislative elections show that President Macky Sall lost the elections … and that he will not have a majority in the National Assembly,” it said.

Senegal’s parliamentary elections pitted the president’s ruling party against an opposition coalition energized by food price hikes and fears the incumbent leader could run for a controversial third term in 2024. Partial results were released late Sunday (31 July), with provisional overall numbers to be published no later than Friday. In a politically volatile atmosphere in West Africa, seven million West African voters are eligible for 165 deputies to the National Assembly.

Tensions have run high in the politically stable West African country since violent protests broke out last year after Sall’s main opponent Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the last 2019 presidential election, was arrested on rape charges. Sonko denies the allegations. Frustrations with economic hardship brought by the coronavirus pandemic have been stoked by fuel and food price hikes linked to the war in Ukraine – raising ire against a president accused of stifling his rivals and failing on promises to improve livelihoods.

Some opposition parties fear that Sall will run again in 2024, a possibility he has not confirmed or denied. Opposition parties fear that the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition, which is experiencing growing discontent in the country, will lose its majority in parliament to the 125 out 165 seats it currently has in the National Assembly.

Senegal’s hybrid election system includes both representatives who win a majority of votes in their administrative departments, as well as representatives elected from national lists, using proportional representation. Senegalese who are living abroad also choose some representatives.