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Senegalese lawmakers approved Saturday a constitutional reform to remove the post of prime minister, first initiative of the second term of President Macky Sall.
The motion was pbaded by 124 MPs who voted for and only seven against, said Saturday evening the Speaker of the National Assembly, Moustapha Nibade, at the end of a nine-hour debate.
The government approved the measure last month before sending it to parliament, where the presidential party has a majority.
Sall, who was reelected comfortably in February, announced the plan in early April by informing Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne to abolish his own job.
This decision was a surprise because it was not part of Sall's re-election campaign.
On Saturday, lawmakers also supported legislative amendments to prevent the president from disbanding the National Assembly, which can no longer submit a no-confidence motion against the government.
Justice Minister Malick Sall said the changes were "purely technical and administrative".
"The goal is not to increase the powers of the president of the republic," he told deputies.
Opposition parties denounced the constitutional amendments.
"It's a democratic setback.You can not concentrate the powers in the hands of a single person," said Toussaint Manga, who heads an opposition group founded by supporters of the government. 39, former president Abdoulaye Wade.
Sall has been in power since 2012 and won 58% of the popular vote in the last election.
A self-proclaimed social-liberal – despite a flirtation with Maoism in his youth – Sall described, in his autobiography published last November, a slow and steady rise from a modest background to the top, despite a pbading in the political desert.
But critics argue that this unique will has pushed Sall to follow the rules to get what he wants.
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