POUR UNE REFONDATION INSTITUTIONNELLE ET UNE CLARIFICATION DÉMOCRATIQUE [Par Abdou Fall]
SECOND OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
[By Abdou Fall]
Former Minister of State
Mr. President of the Republic,
Senegal is currently going through one of the most sensitive political and institutional periods in its contemporary history.
The now open rupture at the top of the State, the tensions that have appeared within the majority resulting from the 2024 election, as well as the resulting uncertainties regarding the stability of public action, place our country before a moment of political truth whose gravity no one can underestimate.
But major crises have this particular characteristic.
They carry both risks and opportunities.
They carry risks of paralysis, confrontation and weakening of institutions; but they also offer historic opportunities for the lasting refounding of the rules of national political functioning.
Mr. President,
One of the main mistakes made since the 2024 change of power was to have addressed the exercise of power without having first dealt with the fundamental question of the institutional transition that was nevertheless required by the unprecedented nature of your accession to the highest office.
The new political configuration that emerged from your election contained from the outset fragile balances, institutional ambiguities and dualities of legitimacy which required, above all, a methodical work of clarifying responsibilities, power relations and the functioning of institutions.
This pivotal meeting unfortunately did not take place.
You have thus embarked on the exercise of power without the new balances necessary for the stability of the State being defined beforehand in a profoundly unprecedented political context.
However, the State of Senegal cannot be governed through improvisation, nor solely through personal relationships.
Heir to a long institutional tradition forged through several centuries of administrative and political history, our State is based on rules, procedures, hierarchies and balances that transcend individuals.
Power certainly operates with men; but it operates primarily through institutions, symbols, rules and customs, both written and unwritten.
It is precisely the progressive weakening of these republican rules and customs that has marked the functioning of the first government resulting from the 2024 change of power, thus contributing to causing numerous imbalances and dysfunctions in the running of the Nation, with serious consequences for the economic, social and diplomatic record of the country.
All the irregularities and shortcomings observed in speeches, behaviors and methods of governance have certainly justified your decision to open a new chapter in the conduct of public affairs.
But the resulting crisis also reveals that our institutional architecture now needs to be adapted to the new political realities of our time.
Mr. President,
The current situation now calls for major decisions, commensurate with the historical challenges of the moment.
The political divorce at the top of the executive branch has created a new institutional reality that makes it extremely difficult to conduct government action calmly and coherently under the current political conditions.
All the more so since, by already putting forward his candidacy for the 2029 presidential election at his party's congress, with the 2027 territorial elections in mind, your former Prime Minister, current President of the National Assembly, has clearly made the choice to embark on a strategy of total and definitive conquest of political power.
In such a context, simply wanting to continue the normal functioning of institutions without addressing the root causes of the crisis would amount to prolonging the blockages, increasing tensions and exposing the country even further to instability.
That is why we believe it is now necessary to open a new political phase.
This stage should revolve around two major decisions.
The first would be to continue, in a renewed spirit, the national consultation process that you initiated.
There is now a need to work towards building solid consensus around the institutional reforms that have now come to fruition in the Senegalese public debate.
For several years, a conviction has gradually taken hold in a large part of national opinion.
Senegal must move away from an excessively vertical governance model to evolve towards a more balanced Republic, based on strong institutions rather than strongmen.
This overhaul could focus in particular on modernizing and deepening our representative democracy in order to make it more participatory, more inclusive and more territorialized, including the establishment of permanent mechanisms for consultation, citizen dialogue and institutionalized consultation.
It should also open up the now essential task of reforming the electoral system and the voting method.
Recent political experience has indeed highlighted the limitations of an electoral system that can produce parliamentary majorities that do not always faithfully reflect the real balance of power in the country.
This can lead to institutional imbalances, excessive power dynamics and political excesses, of which the current manifestations within our National Assembly offer a worrying illustration.
An evolution of the voting system, designed with respect for democratic pluralism and with a concern for a more faithful representation of the real political balances of the country, could promote the emergence of large structured political poles, capable of building solid programmatic alliances around government platforms negotiated and assumed before the citizens.
Such a reform would help bring our country into a new stage of democratic maturity, based on stable, coherent and politically transparent majorities.
The second decision, Mr. President of the Republic, should be the organization of early legislative elections for clarification, once this minimum foundation of consensual reforms has been established.
These elections would have the merit of giving the Senegalese people a voice again in a clarified, peaceful and reorganized political context around institutional rules of the game better adapted to contemporary democratic requirements.
Above all, they would allow for the rebuilding of a coherent and stable majority around a clearly stated political orientation before the Nation.
Mr. President of the Republic,
History sometimes offers leaders rare moments where crises can become turning points towards positive and lasting transformations.
Senegal finds itself at this crossroads today.
You have a historic responsibility to make this crisis not the beginning of a lasting weakening of the State, but the starting point of a major democratic and institutional overhaul.
The country today expects less from personal clashes than from acts of nobility, lucidity, and political boldness.
Above all, he hopes that beyond the rivalries and ruptures of the moment, the foundations can be laid for a new institutional balance capable of guaranteeing the long-term stability of the State, the strengthening of democracy and national cohesion.
It is in this republican spirit that this appeal is addressed to you.
[By Abdou Fall]
Former Minister of State
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