Senegal’s Constitutional Council has refused to hear a legal challenge seeking to overturn the return of Ousmane Sonko to the National Assembly, effectively confirming the former prime minister as speaker and elevating him as the most powerful institutional rival to President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

The opposition-led petition targeted the procedure that allowed Sonko to reclaim his parliamentary seat and then secure an overwhelming vote to become speaker. In a brief ruling, the court declared it had no jurisdiction to review the contested decision, shutting the door on further appeals and solidifying the new balance of power in Dakar.

The outcome marks a dramatic reversal in fortunes for Sonko, a firebrand pan-Africanist who only months ago was dismissed as prime minister after an increasingly public rift with Faye, his former protégé. Their alliance had once been the driving force behind the Pastef party’s rise, with Sonko’s popularity and legal troubles propelling Faye to the presidency after Sonko was barred from contesting the 2024 election due to a defamation conviction.

Analysts say the court’s stance entrenches an unusual configuration at the top of the Senegalese state: a president whose legitimacy is closely tied to a mentor now positioned to challenge him from within the legislature. As speaker, Sonko controls the parliamentary agenda, committee leadership and the tempo of key reforms, giving him leverage over government policy and appointments.

The rupture between the two men has been fueled by disagreements over how aggressively to confront Senegal’s mounting public debt, the pace of economic reforms and the handling of sensitive security and governance issues. While both remain rooted in Pastef’s pan-Africanist and anti-establishment platform, Sonko has signaled a harder line on restructuring debt and renegotiating natural resource contracts, positions that have unsettled parts of the business community and foreign partners.

Sonko’s recent re-election as head of Pastef further consolidates his authority within the party’s base, many of whom view him as the movement’s true standard-bearer. With the Constitutional Council’s decision now final, Senegal enters a new phase of cohabitation-style tension, in which the presidency and the National Assembly are led by estranged allies whose rivalry could shape the country’s political trajectory and its reputation as one of West Africa’s more stable democracies.