Senegal’s youngest president appoints ally and in style opposition determine Ousmane Sonko as prime minister.
Senegal’s new president has appointed firebrand politician and key backer Ousmane Sonko as prime minister in his first act because the West African nation’s chief.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye made the announcement shortly after he was sworn into workplace on Tuesday, pledging systemic change after years of lethal turmoil beneath his predecessor, Macky Sall, a political opponent of Sonko.
Talking after his appointment, Sonko mentioned he would current Faye with a full listing of proposed ministerial appointments for his approval.
“There might be no query of leaving him (Faye) alone to imagine this heavy accountability”, Sonko mentioned.
Faye took the presidential oath in entrance of tons of of officers and a number of other African heads of state at an exhibition centre within the new city of Diamniadio, close to the capital, Dakar.
Faye, 44, has by no means beforehand held elected workplace. He swept to a first-round victory on a promise of radical reform simply 10 days after being launched from jail.
Lena Sene, an economist primarily based in Dakar, informed Al Jazeera that Faye faces a “very troublesome” problem as president.
“You can’t change a complete administration in at some point. He understands that he has to place techniques in place with a purpose to battle corruption. He’s prepared for that,” she mentioned.
Sonko, 49, was on the centre of a two-year standoff with the state that triggered bouts of lethal unrest.
Widespread amongst Senegal’s youth, he was disqualified from working within the March 24 presidential race because of a defamation conviction, and picked Faye as his substitute on the presidential poll. He denied any wrongdoing.
Campaigning collectively beneath the slogan “Diomaye is Sonko,” Sonko urged supporters to vote for his prime lieutenant, Faye, who in the end gained with greater than 54 p.c of the vote within the first spherical.
Financial challenges
Faye, a former tax inspector, is Senegal’s fifth president since independence from France in 1960.
Acknowledging the nation’s need for “systemic change”, he pledged to strengthen the nation’s democracy and set up an unbiased judiciary.
Working along with his populist mentor, Faye now faces the problem of finishing up nationwide reconciliation, whereas easing the cost-of-living disaster, preventing corruption and showing as somebody not subservient to Sonko.
He has additionally promised to revive nationwide sovereignty over key property such because the oil, fuel and fishing sectors.
The brand new authorities additionally must create sufficient jobs in a nation the place 75 p.c of the 18 million inhabitants is aged beneath 35, and the unemployment price is formally 20 p.c.