Amadou Mame Diop, the candidate for President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition has declared the new Speaker of the Senegal parliament.
He emerged as the winner despite the chaotic vote after opposition members attempted to disrupt the voting process but Police had to intervene to restore crisis.
Diop was elected after polled 83 out of 84 votes as Eighty-one out of 165 lawmakers abstained from voting.
The assembly was convening for the first time since a July election in which President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition lost its comfortable majority.
It secured only two seats more than two allied opposition coalitions. The new parliamentary session convened on Monday with the first order of business to elect the house’s new leader. However, parties failed to reach an agreement on electoral procedure.
Diop, deputy mayor of Richard Toll, a town in northern Senegal, and managing director of the Societe Amenagement de la Petite Cote, charged with developing and promoting tourism along Senegal’s coast, succeeds Moustapha Niasse as speaker.
