Senegal parliament speaker steps down as political crisis worsens

The speaker of Senegal’s parliament says he is resigning, two days after his close ally was fired as prime minister in a deepening political crisis.The move by speaker El Malick Ndiaye clears the way for sacked premier Ousmane Sonko to run for the post of head of parliament, where his Pastef party holds a strong majority.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Senegal PM slams West’s ‘homosexual tyranny’, defends LGBTQ crackdownlist 2 of 3Senegal’s President Faye sacks PM Sonko as deepening rift eruptslist 3 of 3Senegal’s President Faye sacks PM Sonko and dissolves governmentend of listThat could further complicate reform efforts by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who sacked his former ally Sonko on Friday after months of tensions.Ndiaye said on Facebook that his decision to step down was “a personal choice, guided above all by my notion of institutions, public responsibility and the greater interest of the nation”.Faye owed his presidency in large part to Sonko, who would almost certainly have taken the top job had he not been barred from running in the last presidential election due to a defamation conviction.Their Pastef party won the 2024 elections on a promise of a profound political shake-up, vowing to fight corruption and inheriting an economy mired in debt.But there had been discord between the president and prime minister for months, making their governing alliance increasingly uncertain.Faye’s dismissal of Sonko on Friday risked worsening uncertainty in a country grappling with a debt crisis and ⁠ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).The IMF froze a $1.8bn lending programme following ‌the discovery of misreported debt hidden by the previous government, pushing the country’s end-2024 debt level to 132 percent of its economic output.