{"id":4682,"date":"2014-03-13T11:54:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T11:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/?p=4682"},"modified":"2022-03-15T09:51:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T09:51:31","slug":"senegal-a-constitution-out-of-the-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/senegal-a-constitution-out-of-the-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal: a constitution out of the blue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On February 13, the <a title=\"CNRI - Website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnri.sn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Commission nationale pour la r\u00e9forme des institutions<\/em><\/a> (CNRI) presented its report to the President of Senegal, Macky Sall. After conducting numerous public consultations across the country, the <a title=\"Avant-Projet de Constitution de la CNRI\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amadoumahtarmbow.org\/original%20site\/ok\/dossierpress\/adeconstitution.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CNRI has proposed a series of institutional reforms<\/a> to \u201cimprove the functioning of institutions, consolidate democracy, deepen the rule of law, and modernise the political regime\u201d. The CNRI\u2019s biggest surprise was the delivery of a whole new draft constitution of 154 articles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The CNRI originated in the <em>Assises nationales<\/em>, a consultative body set up in 2008-09 by 74 organisations opposed to former president Abdoulaye Wade. The coalition sought \u201cconsensual solutions\u201d to the most serious problems confronting Senegal, including food insecurity, corruption, poverty, and the failure of public policy to mitigate these problems. Institutional reform to promote economic development and political stability remains high on the agenda of President Sall \u2013 and was very much to the fore when he asked donors and investors in Paris for \u20ac4.6 billion at the end of February.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Majority support<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The man charged in March 2013 with directing the CNRI was 93 year-old Professor Amadou Mahtar Mbow, a former director-general of UNESCO who also led the <em>Assises nationales<\/em>. His approach was highly participatory and the CNRI only adopted proposals backed by a clear and demonstrable majority of citizens.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Also Read: <a title=\"Tanzania and Senegal: inside the machine\" href=\"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/publications\/briefing-notes\/tanzania-and-senegal-inside-the-machine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tanzania and Senegal: inside the machine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among other things, citizens demanded greater consultation by the government on major decisions and greater accountability through, for example, the obligatory adoption of participatory budgeting at the local level. Citizens were equally vocal about the \u201cpresidentialisation\u201d of the administration, recommending that the president should forfeit the role of party leader following election.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As for the constitution, the report recommends:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>its translation into the national languages of Senegal<\/li>\n<li>that any changes are subject to public consultation by referendum or other means,<\/li>\n<li>the creation of a Constitutional Court, which would replace and have more far-reaching powers than the existing Constitutional Council<\/li>\n<li>limitations to the president\u2019s capacity to dissolve parliament<\/li>\n<li>that certain articles concerning the separation of powers and the maximum tenure of a president should become immutable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Before submitting its final recommendations, the CNRI consulted groups of experts including representatives of political parties and members of civil society. However the report emphasised that greater weight was accorded to the majority views of citizens.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Changes to the party political system have also been proposed. In future, it is suggested, parties must be able to demonstrate that they have more than 10,000 members in total in a minimum of 10 of the 14 regions of the country, and at least 700 members in each region. To combat corruption, the CNRI has also called for an assessment of the viability of providing public funding for all political parties.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Presidential silence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The draft constitution has sparked little international interest and the reaction at home has been subdued \u2013 perhaps surprising given the fervour of the population for upholding <a title=\"Tanzania and Senegal: Inside the Machine\" href=\"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/publications\/briefing-notes\/tanzania-and-senegal-inside-the-machine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the country\u2019s democratic credentials<\/a>. Journalist <a title=\"S\u00e9n\u00e9gal: quand le projet de Constitution irrite la mouvance pr\u00e9sidentielle\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jeuneafrique.com\/Article\/JA2772p040.xml0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mehdi Ba has observed that the main opposition to the CNRI<\/a>\u2019s report has been articulated by some in the presidential camp. Critics have accused the CNRI of having exceeded its mandate by proposing a new constitution. A reaction is awaited from the president \u2013 who owes his election to the voters of a very broad coalition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">by Olivier Milland, Research and Communications Assistant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Olivier Milland looks at some of the constitutional revisions presented to President Macky Sall of Senegal that are based on extensive public consultations carried out across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[466,208,207,465,467,204,162],"class_list":["post-4682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-cnri","tag-constitution","tag-institutional-reforms","tag-macky-sall","tag-mahktar-mbow","tag-senegal","tag-west-africa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - 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