Révision de la Constitution : « Vouloir doubler le président de la République pourrait créer...»
A new institutional upheaval is brewing at the highest levels of government, fears L'Observateur. The newspaper reports in its Saturday, June 13th edition that the National Assembly's bureau has accepted a proposed law to revise the Constitution, initiated by a group of deputies from Pastef/Les Patriotes.
The context: a presidential project already approved by the Constitutional Council
This move comes as a complete surprise, especially since this parliamentary initiative comes at a time when the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, had already launched his own reform process stemming from the national dialogues on justice (2024) and the political system (2025). The Head of State had made draft bills available to the public, notably those aimed at creating a Constitutional Court and ensuring transparency in natural resources.
To this end, Macky Sall's successor had consulted the Constitutional Council on May 5 for an advisory opinion. In a decision issued on May 25, "the seven judges validated several provisions of the text." By choosing to initiate their own bill, the majority party's members of parliament disregarded the presidential approach, while incorporating the Constitutional Council's corrections into the president's initial draft.
Fears of a major political crisis
According to electoral expert Ndiaga Sylla, quoted by the daily newspaper of the Groupe Futurs Médias (GFM), this maneuver is "a complex and atypical process." He believes that transforming a presidential project already examined by the Constitutional Council into a parliamentary bill demonstrates a desire to create "an institutional crisis in our country," going beyond mere power struggles.
Former parliamentarian Moussa Tine, contacted by the same source, agrees and warns: "those who want to outmaneuver the President of the Republic will plunge us into a new political and institutional tension."
The legal perspective: revision is impossible without the President's approval
Moussa Tine points out a crucial detail in Article 103 of the Constitution: "No majority, regardless of its composition, may amend the Constitution without the approval of the President of the Republic." While members of parliament legally have the right to initiate and adopt a text by a simple majority, the impasse lies in the final and mandatory stage: approval. This approval can only be granted in two ways, both of which are exclusively controlled by the Head of State.
As for the referendum route, it is the exclusive prerogative of the President of the Republic, meaning that if he refuses to call a referendum, the revision cannot succeed. Regarding the parliamentary route, for members of parliament to approve the text by a three-fifths majority, the Head of State must decide, through his discretionary power, to submit the text directly to them rather than holding a referendum. The former member of parliament concludes that the parliamentary majority does not legally have the means to bring this revision to fruition on its own and is thus heading towards a political deadlock.
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