• Analysis
Senegal revised budget rejected as parliament votes down 2026 bill
Senegal's revised budget was rejected on Tuesday when the opposition-dominated National Assembly voted down the 2026 budget bill, with 109 lawmakers against, 20 in favour and three abstaining.
The vote
Senegal's revised budget was rejected in the National Assembly on Tuesday, where 109 lawmakers voted against the 2026 bill, 20 backed it and three abstained. The debate, attended by Finance Minister Cheikh Diba, opened at 10:00am local and GMT time.
El Malick Ndiaye, the session's presiding lawmaker, announced the outcome: "we consider the bill rejected".
Pastef's long-standing opposition
The Pastef party led by Ousmane Sonko holds an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly and had long made clear it would not accept the bill. Sonko, who is engaged in a political feud with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, serves as speaker of the National Assembly.
The rejection on the floor did not come out of nowhere:
- •Parliament had already sent the bill back to committee a week before the vote.
- •The Pastef majority in the finance committee rejected it twice.
What the revised budget contained
According to a parliamentary document, the revised budget accounted for a sharp rise in hydrocarbon prices driven in part by tensions in the Middle East. It also projected lower tax revenue following a government recovery plan and carried higher debt-servicing costs.
Stakes for the IMF programme
Senegal announced in September a $2.2-billion IMF debt programme aimed at stabilising public finances. The revised budget was seen as crucial to restoring public finances as the country finalises the bailout, but the IMF has yet to announce executive board approval and the programme remains subject to conditions.
Senegal's Ministry of the Economy said on Saturday that the rejection comes "in a context of severely limited room for manoeuvring, difficulties in accessing financial markets and ongoing negotiations" with the IMF.
