Senegal’s Faye Dissolves Parliament, Seeking Reform Mandate
(Bloomberg) -- Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dissolved parliament in an effort to consolidate power and implement his reform agenda.
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Polls to elect new lawmakers will be held on Nov. 17, he said in a statement on Thursday.
Africa’s youngest elected leader, who won a presidential vote in March by a landslide, is seeking a majority to reassure voters and investors that he can fulfill his pledges to tackle corruption, ease a cost-of-living crisis and review oil and gas contracts with Senegal’s foreign partners. He’s faced a legislative deadlock with a National Assembly dominated by lawmakers loyal to his predecessor, Macky Sall.
“I dissolve the National Assembly to ask the sovereign people for the institutional means to bring about the systemic transformation that I’ve promised them,” Faye said. Thursday marked the second anniversary of the current parliament’s first sitting, the earliest date under Senegal’s law that Faye could dissolve the legislature.
The disbanding came after lawmakers blocked a revision of the constitution and tabled a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. Faye also said the opposition-dominated parliament had refused to hold a mandatory budget debate and to shut down wasteful institutions at a time when the state “urgently needs to rationalize public spending.”
Faye’s Pastef party is likely to win sufficient backing in the upcoming vote “due to the present political landscape,” said Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft. “The fragmented opposition lacks momentum and public appeal to pose a significant challenge.”
The yield on the country’s 2048 bond was little changed as of 11:07 a.m. in London at 9.58% and is headed for a 29 basis point decline this week — the biggest since the week ending July 12. Senegal’s dollar bonds are the third-best performing this week in an index of 72 frontier and emerging-market sovereign’s, whose dollar bonds are monitored by Bloomberg.
The parliamentary elections will take place as Senegal is set to become a major liquid natural gas producer, with the $4.8-billion BP Plc-operated Grand Tortue Ahmeyim field expected to come online during the final quarter of this year.
--With assistance from Momar Niang and Colleen Goko.
(Updates with comment by president in fourth paragraph; bond gains in seventh)
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