Senegal’s parliament rejects revised budget in 109–20 vote, clouding a $2.2 billion IMF programme
Senegal’s National Assembly on Tuesday rejected the government’s revised 2026 budget by 109 votes to 20, deepening a standoff between President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and National Assembly President Ousmane Sonko and putting a planned $2.2 billion IMF programme at risk.
Senegal’s National Assembly on Tuesday rejected the government’s revised 2026 budget, a vote seen as crucial to the West African country sealing a new support programme from the International Monetary Fund.
Of the 132 lawmakers who took part in the vote in Dakar, 109 voted to reject the amended finance bill, 20 voted to keep it and three abstained, Reuters reported. Following a morning debate, the session’s presiding lawmaker, El Malick Ndiaye, announced: “We consider the bill rejected.”
The rejection deepens a standoff between the government, which wants the revised budget passed, and National Assembly President Ousmane Sonko, whose Pastef party holds an overwhelming majority in parliament and had made clear last month that its members would not support the bill. Sonko, a former prime minister, is engaged in a dramatic political feud with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The finance committee of the National Assembly had already rejected the bill twice, and parliament had sent it back to committee a week ago in a bid to find a compromise. That effort failed, and on Tuesday the debate was cut short after a Pastef lawmaker used parliamentary procedure to have the text declared not fit for debate — a move that amounts to rejection without discussion of its contents.
At stake is a $2.2 billion IMF debt programme that Senegal announced in September, aimed at stabilising its public finances. The IMF has yet to announce executive board approval, and the programme is subject to conditions — with passage of the amended budget seen as one of the steps Dakar had hoped would allow board approval as early as next month, following a staff-level deal reached in September.
A parliamentary document shared with AFP on Tuesday indicated that the revised budget was designed to account for a sharp rise in hydrocarbon prices, driven in part by tensions in the Middle East, a decline in projected tax revenue following a recent government recovery plan, and an increase in debt-servicing costs. Senegal’s public-sector debt was estimated at 132 percent of GDP at the end of 2024, after billions of dollars in borrowing by the previous administration were found to have been misreported.
The finance ministry warned on Saturday that Pastef’s rejection came “in a context of severely limited room for manoeuvring, difficulties in accessing financial markets and ongoing negotiations” with the IMF. The government indicated on Friday that rejection of the budget would notably compromise the supply of electricity, payments owed to businesses and back pay for teachers.
Pastef lawmakers defended their position during Tuesday’s debate, which began at 10am local time with Finance Minister Cheikh Diba in attendance. Pastef lawmaker Ayib Daffe said measures in the bill aimed at combating the cost of living “do not suit us”, adding: “There are no measures planned to stabilise fuel prices.”
President Faye had asked the prime minister at a cabinet meeting on October 28 to take every legal step needed to carry out the policies in the revised budget and in the 2027 finance bill. Senegal’s constitution allows a budget to be brought into force by decree once a 60-day window has expired, leaving the government with a legal route to implement its spending plans even without parliament’s approval — though such a step would deepen the confrontation with the assembly.
The next test will be the debate on the 2027 budget, and whether the government and the Pastef majority can find any common ground before then. Until that happens, Senegal’s path to IMF board approval — and to the financing it needs to cover its 2026 obligations — remains uncertain, with the treasury under strain and the feud between the president and the assembly speaker unresolved.
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