Dakar, Apr 15 (APS) – The National Assembly has adopted an amendment that maintains the number of deputies to be elected for the next legislature (2022-2027) at 165, despite the creation of a new department in 2021 and the will of the Minister of the Interior to add seven seats, found the APS on Friday.
By virtue of the text adopted by 94 votes in favor – 12 votes against – the legislature which will be elected on July 31 will be made up of 97 deputies representing the Senegalese residing in the national territory, 15 others, who will be elected by majority vote at a turn to ensure the representation of Senegalese abroad, and 53 other deputies still to be elected by proportional representation, on the national list.
The adopted amendment reduces the number of seats to be filled on the national list by seven and adds as many to the proportional system.
The text was proposed by the majority group Benno Bokk Yaakaar (BBY) in order to “avoid any controversy”, to repeal and also replace articles (148 and 150) of the Electoral Code which provide for an increase of seven deputies of the 165, the number of members of the parliamentary chamber since 2017, explained Seydou Diouf.
”The increase in the number of deputies, from 165 to 172, does not seem to win the support of part of the political class, which wishes to call into question the consensus resulting from the consultations initiated by the Ministry of the Interior on this subject,” explained Mr. Diouf, a member of BBY.
An increase in the number of deputies would have “no relevance”, argued Cheikh Abdoul Bara Mbacké Dolly, deputy of Convergence Bokk Gis Gis, the party of Pape Diop, former president of the National Assembly.
He invoked the economic difficulties and the “exorbitant costs” which would result from an increase in the number of seats of the parliamentary institution, to oppose it.
”I am not against this reform, but it must not have financial implications”, maintained Aïda Mbodj, also elected from the opposition.
The idea of increasing the number of deputies by seven “does not stem from a unilateral will”, argued the Minister of the Interior, Antoine Diome.
The idea of an increase in the number of parliamentary seats “is the result of a consensus reached during consultations with the various existing political poles” in the National Assembly, the majority, the opposition and the non- aligned, after “four meetings”, argued Mr. Diome.
Speaking of the explanatory memorandum of the amended bill, Antoine Diome recalled that under the Electoral Code, 90 deputies are elected by majority ballot in one round, “within the jurisdiction of the department”, for the interior of the country, due to ”seven deputies at most and one deputy at least”.
”The departments whose population is equal to or greater than 170,000 inhabitants obtain at least two seats”, recalled the Minister of the Interior.
These provisions of the law “served as the basis for the distribution of seats during the 2017 legislative elections”, due to one deputy for 12 departments and two deputies for the 33 others having reached 170,000 inhabitants, out of the 90 seats planned for the departmental majority vote, he added.
From 2017 to 2022, the Senegalese population has evolved, and a new department has been created, that of Keur Massar (west), recalled Antoine Diome, adding that “the number of departments having reached 170,000 inhabitants has increased from 33 to 36. ‘, out of 46 in total.
It was necessary “to correct the injustices long suffered by the departments of Thiès and Mbour, which each have more than 800,000 inhabitants”, he underlined.
It is on this basis that ”this reform [a été menée] by the government”, in ”a wide consultation with the actors concerned”, argued the Minister of the Interior as justification for his plan to increase seven new seats.
”However, what appeared to be a consensus seems broken if we refer to the various interventions of the opposition. Hence the relevance of adopting this amendment,” reconsidered Mr. Diome.