Dakar (AFP) – Senegal's National Assembly, dominated by the opposition, on Tuesday rejected the draft 2026 amending budget presented by the government and considered crucial for restoring the public finances of this over-indebted country and in negotiations with the IMF for financial aid.

Published on: 03/11/2026 - 16:57

The rejection of this amending bill casts uncertainty over this aid of 2.2 billion dollars (1.93 billion euros) expected from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Fund's board of directors has still not approved the preliminary agreement concluded in September between the international institution and the Senegalese authorities.

The opposition Pastef party, which has a majority in the Assembly, is led by the President of the National Assembly Ousmane Sonko, who is at odds with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, his former long-time ally.

The Prime Minister, Ahmadou Al Aminou Mohamed Lô, affirmed that the opposition could not "block" the country on this draft budget, the executive having according to him "dialogue" but also "constitutional" ways to resolve disagreements, in an interview on October 26 with AFP.

This revised 2026 budget is presented as a key measure, particularly in relation to the requests made by the IMF, whose 36-month aid program aims to stabilize the country's public finances.

But this aid is subject to certain conditions while Dakar is also in full negotiations with its creditors.

The Assembly's work began Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. (GMT and local), AFP journalists noted.

But after about two hours, the debates were cut short after a request from deputy Amadou Ba, member of the majority Pastef party, based on parliamentary provisions allowing the text to be voted on directly, without discussion.

Out of 149 voters of the 165 deputies of the Assembly, 126 voted for rejection and 20 against. Three deputies abstained, according to new results taking into account 17 proxies from elected officials against the text, according to a press release from the institution.

Lack of “budgetary sincerity”

“The bill (on the revised budget) is rejected,” declared the president of the plenary session of the National Assembly, El Malick Ndiaye. The parliamentary majority had already twice rejected the text in committee in October.

“We were not able to have all the relevant data” to assess the revised budget, said Mr. Ba, criticizing the government for not having communicated documents to the Assembly.

For his part, the president of the parliamentary group of the same party, Ayib Daffé, cited a lack of "budgetary sincerity" in the text presented by the government.

“The measures presented against the cost of living do not suit us. (There are) no measures planned to stabilize fuel prices” and avoid a possible increase, Mr. Daffé further said.

The Pastef party had on Friday pointed out in particular "disagreements" on "the (budgetary) deficit and the debt", the protection of purchasing power and "choices in terms of public investment", in a press release.

Finance Minister Cheikh Diba, bitter, said: "It's not good to play. You only have the pretext of budgetary sincerity to call into question a project as important as the amending finance bill," he said.

The revised budget aims to take into account the sharp rise in hydrocarbon prices, due in particular to tensions in the Middle East, the drop in tax revenue expected from a recent government recovery plan and the increase in debt service, according to a parliamentary document sent to AFP on Tuesday.

The envelope to support tariffs in electricity and domestic gas supply, for example, increased from a forecast of 250 billion FCFA (more than 381 million euros) to more than 790 billion FCFA (more than 1.2 billion euros).

The government indicated, during committee work on October 30, that non-approval of the revised budget could compromise in particular the supply of electricity and the payment of the debt owed to businesses and back pay to teachers.

Senegal faces a public debt estimated at 132% of GDP at the end of 2024.

© 2026 AFP

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