President Bassirou Diomaye Faye sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government on Friday, May 22, following months of conflict. The move has deepened a crisis in the debt-laden West African nation. Faye and Sonko had founded Senegal's main opposition party together 12 years ago.
On Sunday, parliament speaker El Malick Ndiaye announced his resignation. Ndiaye is the latest senior figure caught in a widening rupture at the top of the country's ruling movement, further deepening the political turmoil following the president's dismissal of the government.
The resignation clears the way for the sacked premier, Ousmane Sonko, to run for the position of head of parliament in a challenge to President Faye. Sonko's Pastef party currently commands a strong majority in the legislature.