Senegal’s electoral system: can a bold overhaul make every vote count?

Senegal’s democracy may be at a turning point, and the question now is whether its voting system truly reflects the will of the people. In a detailed contribution that is stirring debate, Khalidou dit Mbaye Sokoma, president of the Mouvement Patriotique pour un Développement Durable (MPPD) / AND DEFAR SUNU REEW, argues that the time has come for a serious rethink of how representatives are elected. His goal: a political landscape that mirrors the choices of citizens more faithfully, stays close to local realities, and strengthens the bond between voters and those who govern.

A hybrid system under scrutiny

Senegal’s current electoral architecture blends a single-round majority list system with proportional representation. In the National Assembly, 112 of the 165 seats are filled through majority voting, while 53 are allocated proportionally from a national list. At the municipal level, the mixed system sets aside 45% of seats for majority rule and 55% for proportional allocation. For Khalidou dit Mbaye Sokoma, this arrangement has shown its limits and deserves a fresh look to ensure that the composition of elected bodies more accurately reflects the votes cast.

1. A push for full proportional representation with strong local roots

One of the central proposals is to introduce a fully proportional voting system for both legislative and local elections, while maintaining a genuine territorial anchor. The idea is not merely to distribute seats according to each party’s electoral weight, but to rebuild the connection between elected officials and the people they represent. To achieve this, candidacies should open up beyond party machines to include citizens’ movements, independent candidates, and—under strict conditions—civil society and qualified state services. Nominations would thus take root in neighbourhoods and villages, rewarding local presence and popular trust.

2. Redefining the role of members of parliament: from party to territory

The relationship between citizens, their territory, and their representatives needs a reset. Khalidou dit Mbaye Sokoma insists that voters must be able to clearly identify their MPs, who should be regularly accountable to those who elected them. Political parties would keep their supporting role but would no longer hold a monopoly on representation: the figure of the “party’s MP” would give way to that of the “MP chosen by citizens and rooted in a territory.”

3. Making the local vote clearer and more stable

Applied to municipal and departmental elections, this reinforced proportional system would better reflect the diversity of political views within a commune. However, such openness must go hand in hand with stable local executives. Khalidou dit Mbaye Sokoma suggests a runoff when no list wins an absolute majority (50%), so that the competing forces can be clearly separated—subject to a prior study of the legal and financial implications.

4. A more localized electoral administration

To fine-tune the process, the on-the-ground organization of elections could rely more on prefects and sub-prefects within their respective jurisdictions, under the supervision of the national body and in strict adherence to impartiality and equality. Such localization would foster dialogue with grassroots communities.

5. Kaolack’s special case: toward a new local organization

For Kaolack, a city spanning nearly 6,959 hectares (69.6 km²), divided into 45 neighbourhoods and home to a large population (1,336,720 inhabitants according to the 2023 RGPH-5), Khalidou dit Mbaye Sokoma advocates a tailored approach. Given its urban growth and economic role, he recommends studying the creation of three or four arrondissement communes or local municipal entities. Such a change would rest on rigorous criteria: demographics, infrastructure, living areas, tax resources, and administrative capacity.

In the end, the quality of a democracy is measured by how clearly citizens see their votes translated into seats and can identify their spokespersons. Khalidou dit Mbaye Sokoma is calling for a broad, pluralistic, and well-documented national debate to give Senegal a system in which every citizen, every neighbourhood, and every village truly matters in choosing the nation’s representatives.

By Marguerite Ndongo — Political and Security Analyst