The Constitutional Council says it has no power to interfere with the National Assembly’s decision to admit Ousmane Sonko as a member of parliament. The court said the matter was not within its power to decide.
Senegal’s Constitutional Council has rejected a legal challenge by 18 members of parliament seeking to prevent opposition leader Ousmane Sonko from taking his seat in the National Assembly. The court said the matter was not within its power to decide.
The 18 MPs, led by Deputy Tafsir Thioye, filed the petition on June 1, 2026. They were challenging a decision made on May 24, 2026, by the Bureau of the National Assembly, the body that manages the day-to-day running of parliament.
That decision had officially recognised Sonko as a deputy and allowed him to join the Assembly.
The MPs wanted the Constitutional Council to declare that decision unlawful. But the court said it simply does not have the authority to step into an internal parliamentary matter.
The MPs pointed to Article 92 of the Senegalese Constitution, which gives the Constitutional Council the role of overseeing MP elections and generally keeping institutions in check. They argued the Article of the Constitution gave the court the power to review how Sonko was admitted into parliament.
The National Assembly’s lawyers disagreed. He argued that what the Bureau decides internally, such as who gets admitted as a member, is parliament’s own business and cannot be overturned by the Constitutional Council.
The Constitutional Council agreed with the National Assembly’s lawyers. It ruled that it has no legal authority to hear or decide the case. The court was made up of six members at the time of the ruling, more than the four needed by law to make a valid decision.
In its ruling, the Council issued two orders: first, that it cannot take on the case, leaning heavily on the classic separation of powers doctrine and second, that its decision should be published in the Official Journal of the Republic of Senegal.
The ruling was signed by Acting President Aminata Ly Ndiaye, members Youssoupha Diaw Mbodj, Awa Dièye, Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Coulibaly, and Mouhamadou Bachirou Sèye. El Hadji Macky Barro was the Chief Clerk.
With the ruling, the attempt to use the courts to block Sonko from sitting in parliament has failed. The May 24 decision that admitted him as an MP stands, and his place in the National Assembly is intact at least for now.
Sonko, who leads the PASTEF party, is one of Senegal’s most well-known opposition figures. He has been caught up in a series of legal and political battles in recent years. His entry into parliament had already become a point of contention.
The decision shows the limits of what constitutional courts can do when it comes to decisions made inside parliament. Courts across West Africa have often had to decide how far they can go before crossing into parliamentary territory, and in this case, Senegal’s Constitutional Council chose to stay out.
