Senegal National Assembly Elects Ousmane Sonko Speaker After President Bassirou Diomaye Faye Dismissal

Senegal’s political crisis sharpened on 22 May 2026 when President Bassirou Diomaye Faye announced he’d dismissed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government, breaking the Sonko-Diomaye alliance that had formed after the fall of former president Macky Sall.

In a rapid reversal, Senegal’s National Assembly elected ousted Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko as speaker on Tuesday, with France 24 reporting the vote came just days after Faye sacked Sonko and dissolved the cabinet.

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France 24 said Sonko’s election followed the resignation of former parliament speaker El Malick Ndiaye, clearing the way for Sonko’s return to the political front line.

Business Insider Africa reported Sonko secured 132 votes in the 165-seat parliament after legislators moved to reinstate him as a member of the National Assembly earlier in the day, with no lawmaker voting against him and one abstaining.

The standoff is framed as a constitutional clash, with Business Insider Africa describing the opposition reaction as an “institutional coup” amid growing tensions within the ruling alliance.

Opposition leaders denounced Sonko’s parliamentary comeback as an “institutional coup,” with Business Insider Africa quoting senior opposition leader Aissata Tall Sall describing the move that way.

France 24 also reported the opposition reaction, saying Aissata Tall Sall denounced an "institutional coup" prepared under "pressure that the majority wants to impose".

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In the background of the power struggle, eNCA said tensions between the president and Sonko stretch back months, including July 2025 when Sonko launched a scathing attack on Faye denouncing a "failure of leadership".

eNCA added that earlier this month Faye warned the party must be "depersonalised from the leader who embodies it" and said Sonko remains prime minister because he retains my confidence.

The dispute is also tied to how Senegal will handle IMF engagement, with eNCA stating that when Faye and Sonko came to power in 2024 they accused Macky Sall’s government of hiding a part of the debt, leading to the suspension of a $1.8-billion IMF aid programme it had agreed in 2023.

Senegal’s political fight is unfolding alongside a debt crisis, with France 24 saying the country is labouring under a huge debt burden amounting to 132 percent of GDP.

France 24 reported that Faye wants to discuss a new aid programme with the IMF while Sonko prefers a domestic, sovereigntist approach, turning the leadership split into a direct disagreement over how to address the IMF relationship.

After Sonko’s dismissal, Senegal’s presidency named economist Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo as prime minister, with أنوار بريس saying Faye named Ahmed Amin Lo as the new Prime Minister replacing Ousmane Sonko.

أنوار بريس said the appointment came three days after Faye dismissed Sonko and dissolved the government, and it added that Parliament is expected to vote on Tuesday to reinstate Ousmane Sonko to his seat and elect a new president of the National Assembly.

The stakes are described in terms of institutional paralysis and economic uncertainty, with Business Insider Africa warning the move could intensify speculation of a deepening fracture at the top of Senegal’s leadership as the country faces mounting debt pressures and economic uncertainty.