Constitutional revision: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye seizes the Constitutional Council to challenge the adoption procedure

The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, officially submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Council for unconstitutionality against Law No. 18/2026 revising the Constitution, adopted by the National Assembly on June 29.

According to a filing receipt dated July 6, 2026, consulted by Soleil digital, the appeal was filed at 11:40 a.m. by Me Cheikh Ahmadou Ndiaye, acting in the name and on behalf of the Head of State, before the registry of the Constitutional Council.
The document specifies that the appeal relates to a “violation of the constitutional revision procedure of Law No. 18/2026 of the National Assembly dated June 29, 2026”. The Head of State also requested that the matter be examined urgently, within the eight-day period provided for by article 17 of the organic law relating to the Constitutional Council.

Registered under number 6/C/26, the request is accompanied by a large file of supporting documents. These include the various correspondence exchanged between the government and the National Assembly, the amendments tabled, the decree designating the Minister of Justice as representative of the government, the speech given by the latter in plenary session, as well as the minutes of transmission of images and recordings of the session of June 29.

The file also includes two USB keys containing video and audio recordings of the interventions of the Minister of Justice and the President of the National Assembly, in French and Wolof, as well as several decisions of the Constitutional Council of Senegal and the French Constitutional Council invoked as legal references.

This referral opens a new stage in the dispute around the constitutional revision adopted by the deputies, the conformity of which with the Constitution will now be assessed by the seven wise men of the Constitutional Council.

By Salla GUEYE