13th May, 2019
Mr Souleymane Ndoye, Deputy Leader of the Senegalese delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, has said that the abolishment of the post of Prime Minister would not affect the country’s democracy.
Ndoye said this following the presentation of the country’s report at the ongoing session of the parliament in Abuja on Monday.
According to reports, Senegalese lawmakers on May 4, approved a constitutional reform to cancel the post of prime minister, the first initiative of President Macky Sall’s second term in office.
The National Assembly President, Moustapha Niasse, said the motion passed with 124 members of parliament voting in favour and only seven against.
The government approved the measure in April before sending it to the parliament.
Responding to questions from the parliamentarians, Ndoye explained that the prime minister did not have constitutional powers and thus did not affect the democracy of the country.
“With regards to the constitution reform of 2019, which led to the cancellation of the post of the prime minister, I would like to point out that the prime minister is not elected, it is the president that is elected and has a clear mandate.
“We embarked on a referendum in March 2016 where the president undertook to reduce the presidential tenure from seven to five years.
“In order to fast-track the implementation of his policies and programmes, he also went ahead to abolish the post of the prime minister.
“You need to know that the prime minister does not have constitutional powers, it is only the president that has such powers, so nothing affects our democracy if this is done,” he said.
The Member of Parliament also added that the objective of cancelling the prime minister’s post was to get closer to the people and the ministers in order to provide dividends of democracy to the people.