DAKAR: The speaker of Senegal´s parliament said on Sunday he was resigning, two days after his close ally was fired as prime minister, deepening a 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.
That 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 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”.
After Sonko´s sacking, no details were provided on the appointment of a new prime minister.
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 clear discord between the president and prime minister for months, making their governing alliance increasingly uncertain.
Sonko had accused Faye of a “failure of leadership” for not backing him against his critics.
Sonko´s dismissal came hours after he condemned what he described as a tyrannical West trying to “impose” homosexuality on the rest of the world, following the passage of a new law to toughen sentences for same-sex relations.
