“Diomaye-Sonko, new season,” reads the front page of Tuesday, June 30, referring to the tense relations between President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. Dismissed from the premiership on May 22, Sonko took the speaker’s chair at the National Assembly just four days later.

New season, indeed, as two blocs now confront each other over a constitutional reform: the executive and the legislative. This is what observers call a “clash of institutions.”

On June 29, the National Assembly—where Sonko’s party, the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef), holds 130 of the 165 seats—adopted a constitutional revision proposal. However, before the review began, Justice Minister Me Moussa Sarr announced that its adoption would be subject to a future referendum.

Reshaping the institutional architecture

The text is divisive. The government’s four proposed amendments were rejected by the law committee. The review preceding the June 29 vote took place in a tense atmosphere, with opposition deputies walking out of the chamber in protest.

“This reform, carried by the majority from the”