National Assembly: Ousmane Sonko opens the extraordinary session devoted to the General Policy Declaration

The President of the National Assembly, Ousmane Sonko, opened the second extraordinary session of the year this Tuesday, September 1, 2026, after noting that the required quorum had been reached.

“The Assembly is in the conditions required to deliberate validly,” he declared before pronouncing the official opening of the work, convened by Decree No. 2026-1530 of the President of the Republic, dated August 24, 2026.

This extraordinary session, whose agenda is limited to a single point, is entirely devoted to the General Policy Declaration (DPG) of Prime Minister Ahmadou Alhaminou Mohamed Lô before the national representation.

A date still to be fixed

In his opening speech, the President of the Assembly, however, provided important clarification on the work schedule. He indicated that he had not received, to date, any official notification setting the date for the continuation of the procedure. A faculty that he insisted on situating precisely in the institutional architecture: “This faculty is left within the executive to the President of the Republic, and only to the President of the Republic,” he recalled, specifying that it was normally up to the Head of State to propose a date within eight days following the General Policy Declaration.

In the absence of such correspondence, Ousmane Sonko indicated that the parliamentary institution relied on the provisions of its own internal regulations to continue its work. He cited in particular article 22, relating to the Conference of Presidents, a body bringing together the president and vice-presidents of the Assembly, the committee presidents, the general rapporteur of the Finance and Budgetary Control Committee, as well as the parliamentary group presidents and the representative of non-attached members.

The Conference of Presidents in control of the calendar

It is this Conference of Presidents which will now be responsible for setting the work schedule, both in committee and in plenary session. It may also decide on the organization of the debates, in accordance with Article 77, paragraph 4, of the internal regulations, by fixing the overall duration of the session as well as the distribution of speaking time between the parliamentary groups and those not registered, according to the terms determined by a general instruction from the Bureau.

In fact, if the session opened on September 1 as announced, the actual date on which the procedure linked to the General Policy Declaration will continue is, at this stage, not yet decided: it will depend on the timetable that the Conference of Presidents will soon set, in the absence of presidential notification. The session, Ousmane Sonko also recalled, must be closed as soon as its single agenda is exhausted.

By Cheikh Gora DIOP