Senegal's ousted PM Sonko elected parliament speaker in challenge to President Faye

Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye (left) and his former ally and PM Ousmane Sonko have been at loggerheads for months. © Annie Risemberg, Sylvain Cherkaoui, AP

Senegal's National Assembly on Tuesday voted to reinstate ousted PM Ousmane Sonko as a member and appoint him speaker, just days after he was sacked by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in an escalating power struggle between the two former allies.

Senegal is mired in a deep political crisis after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Friday sacked the popular Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government after months of tensions.

Sonko's election as parliament speaker comes a day after Faye named senior economist Ahmadou Al Aminou, former regional central bank official, as prime minister.

Senegal is labouring under a huge debt burden amounting to 132 percent of GDP. When Faye and Sonko came to power in 2024, they accused former president Macky Sall's government of hiding a part of the debt, leading to the suspension of a $1.8 billion IMF aid programme it had agreed in 2023.

Faye essentially owes his position to Sonko, his one time mentor 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.

The two men have fallen out in recent months as Senegal battles public debt. Faye wants to discuss a new aid programme with the IMF, while Sonko prefers a domestic, sovereigntist approach.

Their Pastef party won outright in the first round of 2024 elections promising political reform with both men vowing to fight corruption and revive a floundering economy.

Sonko generated a passionate following among Senegal's disaffected youth ahead of the 2024 poll but it is Faye who wields the real power as president, meaning he could fire his head of government by simple decree.

Having been elected as a lawmaker in the November 2024 legislative elections, Sonko had, a month later, according to his party, requested his mandate be suspended after Faye made him prime minister days after his poll triumph the previous April.

Sunday saw speaker and close Sonko ally El Malick Ndiaye resign, clearing the way for the former to become head of parliament where Pastef holds a strong majority with 130 deputies out of 165 and from where he could challenge the authority of Faye.

The opposition reacted angrily, with Aissata Tall Sall, who heads the main opposition coalition, denouncing an "institutional coup" prepared under "pressure that the majority wants to impose".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)