Dakar, May 12 (APS) – Senegalese researcher Serigne Mbaye Mbodj considers the resignation of the Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, and members of the government from their elective positions as an “act of rupture” and the “strong signal of a new style of governance of public affairs”.
”The decision of the Prime Minister and members of the government to free themselves from their elective mandates to devote themselves exclusively to their functions as minister, is intended to be an act which breaks with the accumulation of mandates which has long constituted a political practice in Senegal ”, said the politician in an interview with APS.
”The new authorities are trying to send a strong signal of a new style of management of public affairs,” he added.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko officially resigned from his post as mayor of the commune of Ziguinchor (south), which he had held since the municipal and departmental elections of January 2022.
This resignation of Mr. Sonko from his elective mandate obeys a directive from the President of the Republic Bassirou Diomaye Faye, asking any member of the new government installed on April 5, who holds elective mandates (territorial authorities, National Assembly), to resign from office within one month.
As of May 5, all those concerned complied with the presidential injunction.
Through this provision, the new political authorities are inaugurating an era ”of new political practices based on virtue, ethics and morality”, believes the specialist in questions of democracy and good governance.
In addition, ”if it is impossible to combine the function of minister and the office of deputy, he specifies, no legal or regulatory provision prevents one from being a deputy and mayor, minister and mayor, mayor and director general or chairman of the board of directors.
”It is in this desert of non-regulation that very powerful political figures have emerged at the level of their locality, because they combine an elected function and another of appointment emanating from the President of the Republic in a double logic of monopolizing resources and mobilizing a political clientele,” says the lawyer.
According to him, a cumulative political authority could be inclined to nepotism, tending to mobilize resources to favor its locality to the detriment of others.
”By deciding not to perpetuate the emergence of “super-man” politicians, the country’s new authorities give the impression of wanting to put an end to the accumulation of mandates, a corrosive political practice which undermines the foundations of democracy, of justice and social equity,” comments Mr. Mbodj.
In this regard “the resignation of ministers from their elective positions in the wake of the end of accumulation is a campaign promise of candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye”, he recalls, estimating that respect for this commitment contributes to giving back to political speech its credit somewhat lost”.
ABB/AKS
