Senegal’s Ousmane Sonko led parliament has approved a stricter asset declaration law. It will force the president, the prime minister and the speaker of the National Assembly to publish what they own.
Lawmakers passed the bill on Monday by 133 votes to 32. It expands rules that have existed in some form since 2001.
The new asset declaration law requires these three officeholders to submit their declarations within three months of taking office. They must do so again within three months of leaving. Publication, not just internal disclosure, is the significant shift here.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye came to power in April 2024 promising to clean up governance after twelve years under Macky Sall. A stronger asset declaration law was one of the pledges that carried his coalition into office. Monday’s vote was framed by his government as delivering on that promise.
The politics behind the bill are more tangled than the announcement suggests. According to Africanews, the legislation was introduced by the parliamentary majority led by Ousmane Sonko. It initially covered only the presidency, before it was widened to include the speaker and the prime minister.
Faye dismissed Sonko as prime minister in May. That decision ended an alliance that had defined Senegalese politics since their 2024 election win. Sonko was then named speaker of the National Assembly, and the two men have since traded accusations over who is truly committed to transparency.
Some deputies within the ruling Pastef party opposed the asset declaration law during debate. They argued it could become a tool against Faye rather than a genuine reform.
Justice Minister Moussa Sarr told the Gambia Journal that the president intends to fold the measure into a broader constitutional referendum. He said Faye communicated that decision in a letter to the National Assembly on 30 July. Giving the asset declaration law constitutional status, the government argues, would make it harder to weaken through ordinary legislation later on.
The reform reaches beyond the three top officeholders. Faye’s government also wants presidential candidates to file an asset declaration as part of their candidacy papers. The details would be made public before voters cast their ballots.
A candidate who wins would not need to repeat the process on taking office, since the earlier filing would count. Failure to comply would render a candidacy inadmissible under the proposal.
Government officials have defended their choice to route the changes through Article 37 of the constitution, a section that primarily addresses the presidency. Critics in parliament questioned whether it was the right vehicle for obligations touching the legislature and the premiership too. Sarr rejected that criticism. He told lawmakers the drafting reflected established constitutional principles rather than convenience.
Senegal already runs a disclosure system through its anti-corruption body, OFNAC. Existing law already obliges the speaker and the prime minister to file declarations, but privately. What changes under the new asset declaration law is publicity. Declarations by the country’s most senior officials will now sit in the open, not inside an administrative filing cabinet.
Parliamentary approval is only the first step. The proposed constitutional revision now moves toward the referendum that Faye announced in June, though no date has been fixed. The outcome will decide whether Senegal’s asset declaration law becomes a lasting constitutional obligation, or stays open to change by a simple parliamentary majority.
For a president who built his campaign on promises of clean government, the referendum will also work as a public test. Voters will decide whether they believe those promises are being kept. Civil society groups are expected to monitor implementation closely and assess whether disclosures improve public confidence nationwide.
