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All 165 seats in the National Assembly 83 seats needed for a majority |
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Parliamentary elections were held in Senegal on 30 July 2017, having originally been planned for 2 July.
The original election date was chosen on 1 December 2016 after a meeting between the President of Senegal Macky Sall and the Opposition in the National Assembly.
The coalition of parties supporting President Sall, Benno Bokk Yaakaar, sought to retain the parliamentary majority it obtained in the 2012 parliamentary election. It included Sall's party, the Alliance for the Republic, as well as the Socialist Party and the Alliance of the Forces of Progress. The coalition's national candidate list was headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Dionne.
Plans for a united opposition coalition that would incorporate the Senegalese Democratic Party of Abdoulaye Wade as well as the supporters of imprisoned Dakar Mayor Khalifa Sall were ultimately scuttled in late May 2017 because the two sides could not agree on who should head the coalition's candidate list. Consequently the two sides decided to stand separately, with Wade and Khalifa Sall each heading their respective lists. The opposition's failure to unite was viewed as a boon for President Sall, making it appear more likely that he would keep his parliamentary majority; if his supporters lost, he would be forced into cohabitation for the remaining two years of his term, greatly curtailing his powers.