2017 Senegalese parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections will be held in Senegal on 30 July 2017, having originally been planned for 2 July.

Background

The original election date was chosen on 1 December 2016 after a meeting between the President of Senegal Macky Sall and the Opposition in the National Assembly.

The coalition of parties supporting President Sall, Benno Bokk Yaakaar, sought to retain the parliamentary majority it obtained in the 2012 parliamentary election. It included Sall's party, the Alliance for the Republic, as well as the Socialist Party and the Alliance of the Forces of Progress. The coalition's national candidate list was headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Dionne.

Plans for a united opposition coalition that would incorporate the Senegalese Democratic Party of Abdoulaye Wade as well as the supporters of imprisoned Dakar Mayor Khalifa Sall were ultimately scuttled in late May 2017 because the two sides could not agree on who should head the coalition's candidate list. Consequently the two sides decided to stand separately, with Wade and Khalifa Sall each heading their respective lists. The opposition's failure to unite was viewed as a boon for President Sall, making it appear more likely that he would keep his parliamentary majority; if his supporters lost, he would be forced into cohabitation for the remaining two years of his term, greatly curtailing his powers.

Electoral system

The 150 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods; 90 are elected by first-past-the-post bloc list voting in 35 single- or multi-member constituencies based on the 35 departments. The other 60 seats are elected from a nationwide constituency by proportional representation, with seats allocated initially using the simple quotient, with remaining seats allocated using the largest remainder method.

Campaign

The official campaign period began on 8 July. Wade, who had been living in France, returned to Dakar on 10 July to begin campaigning for his coalition, Manko Wattu Sénégal.