DRAFT CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

In substance, the draft constitutional reform will usher in major innovations (15 measures), including:

1. Modernising the role of political parties in the democratic system;
 
2. Involving independent candidates in all forms of elections;

3. Promoting local governance and territorial development through the creation of the High Council for Local Authorities;

4. Recognising new rights for citizens: the right to a healthy environment, and relating to land ownership and natural resources;

5. Strengthening the sense of citizenship by enshrining citizen’s rights in the Constitution;

6. Restoring the five-year term for the Presidential office;

7. Strengthening the rights of the  opposition and its leader;

8. Ensuring representation for the Senegalese abroad through Members of Parliament dedicated only to them;

9. Extending the powers of the National Assembly in overseeing governmental action and reviewing public policies;

10. Submitting to the Constitutional Council organic laws to verify the constitutionality thereof prior to promulgation;

11. Increasing the number of members of the Constitutional Council from 5 to 7;

12. Having 2 to 7 members of the Constitutional Council designated by the President of the National Assembly;

13. Extending the powers of the Constitutional Council to include giving opinions and identifying exceptions to non-constitutionality raised before the Court of Appeal;

14. Constitutionalising the principles of decentralisation and deconcentration;

15. Intangibility of measures regarding Republican form, separation between religion and State, the indivisible, democratic and decentralised nature of the State, election procedures, the duration and number of consecutive mandates open to the President of the Republic.