The president is chief of state and head of government, and is directly elected to a maximum of two consecutive terms. In 2016, the presidential term was reduced via referendum from seven years to five, effective after the end of President Macky Sall’s first term in 2019.

In the February 2019 presidential election, Sall, of the Alliance for the Republic (APR), won reelection. While international observers declared the election credible, it was marred by the exclusion of two prominent opposition politicians, Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, on the basis of their convictions in separate, politically fraught corruption cases.

In September 2022, following the National Assembly elections, President Sall appointed Amadou Ba as prime minister. Ba became the first to hold the role since it was reinstated by constitutional changes in 2021, after having been abolished in May 2019. Further constitutional changes adopted in December 2021 reintroduced the accountability of the government to the National Assembly—a provision that had been removed in 2019—and restored the president’s power to dissolve the legislative body.

In the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections, Sall and his supporters claimed that because the constitutional changes affecting the presidency—namely, the reduction of a presidential term from seven to five years—did not apply to Sall’s first presidential term, that term did not count towards his two-term limit, allowing him to run again in 2024. This argument was rejected by legal experts and the opposition as an illegitimate attempt to keep Sall in power. However, in July 2023, amid heightened political tension, Sall announced that although it would be within his constitutional rights, he would not run for a third mandate in 2024.

Members of Senegal’s 165-seat National Assembly are elected to five-year terms, with 112 elected in single-member districts, and 53 by proportional representation. In the July 2022 election, the ruling United in Hope (BBY) coalition won 82 seats, a decrease from the previous 125. Liberate the People, a new coalition led by Ousmane Sonko, won 56, and former president Abdoulaye Wade’s coalition Wallu Sénégal (Save Senegal) came in third with 24 seats, an improvement from the previous 19. Three smaller coalitions each won a single seat.

Both BBY and Liberate the People initially claimed victory following the July election, with Liberate the People joining forces with Wallu Sénégal in an effort to control the assembly. Although BBY lost the absolute majority it had previously enjoyed, it successfully formed the narrowest possible majority coalition with the support of the representative from one of the single-seat coalitions.

International observers described the parliamentary elections as peaceful, transparent, and successfully administered, despite significant procedural errors and logistical challenges. They noted the exclusion of opposition candidates as a particular concern in the election lead-up.

The July 2022 elections were the first under an electoral code change that increased the number of single-member districts from 105 to 112 and decreased the number of seats elected under a national-level proportional system from 60 to 53.

Local elections were held in January 2022 after having been repeatedly delayed since 2019. The delays created logistical problems that negatively impacted voter registration and the number of first-time voters. Opposition candidates won in key cities.

The National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA) administers elections. Although the CENA is nominally independent, its members are appointed by the president. The opposition criticized the government for making important changes ahead of the 2017 legislative balloting, including the introduction of a new biometric voting system, without engaging in dialogue or building political consensus.

An electoral law passed in 2018 requires all aspiring presidential candidates to collect signatures from at least 0.8 percent of the overall electorate before their names could appear on the ballot, and all groups presenting National Assembly lists to obtain signatures from 0.5 percent of voters in at least seven regions. Of the 27 candidates who submitted the required signatures prior to the 2019 presidential election, only 5 were approved by the Constitutional Council. In April and June 2021, respectively, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice and the European Union (EU) election observation mission raised concern about the provision’s effect on future democratic processes. Despite those warnings and further domestic legal challenges, the government proceeded with the electoral sponsorship requirement for the July 2022 elections.

Registration requirements for new political parties are not onerous, and registered parties can organize and operate without government interference. There are over 300 registered parties, and the proliferation of parties was raised as a concern during the national dialogue. However, opposition candidates still face major financial inequities when competing with incumbents. There is no public financing for political parties, but the ruling party deploys a vast set of state resources to garner support, whereas opposition leaders are often forced to rely on personal wealth to finance party operations or on political alliances to access power.

The opposition can increase its support or gain power through elections, though the government has taken steps—including prosecuting opposition politicians—that appear designed to interfere with their ability to do so.

Several opposition politicians were barred from running in the 2022 legislative elections, most notably Ousmane Sonko. The 2018 electoral law was criticized by opposition leaders for making it more difficult for candidates to appear on the ballot, and was widely seen as a move to clear the field and ensure President Sall’s 2019 reelection.

The prosecutions of some of Sall’s most prominent political opponents in recent years have also reduced the competitiveness of the opposition. This pattern escalated in 2023 as multiple prosecutions of Sonko progressed. In 2021, Sonko was arrested on charges of rape, leading to widespread protests. Sonko repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that the charge was a politically motivated attempt to exclude him from the 2024 presidential race. Sonko was later charged with defamation of Senegal’s minister of tourism following a 2022 speech. In March 2023, Sonko was found guilty on the defamation charge, following a trial that prompted destructive protests in Dakar by his supporters. He was handed a financial penalty and a two-month suspended sentence. In a separate case in June 2023, Sonko was convicted on the charge of—and sentenced to two years in prison for—“corrupting young people,” but was acquitted of rape.

In July, Sonko, who had been serving his sentence at his home, was arrested and charged with fomenting insurrection, and the Ministry of the Interior announced the dissolution of PASTEF. The Supreme Court ruled in November that Sonko was barred from contesting the upcoming presidential election, but a December ruling from a Dakar court reversed that finding. Later that month, Sonko, who remained incarcerated, officially submitted his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, despite the government’s refusal to give him the filing papers.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 due to a pattern of escalating government pressure on the opposition ahead of the 2024 elections, including criminal cases against a key opposition leader and the dissolution of his party.

People’s political choices are largely free from domination by groups that are not democratically accountable. Despite the constitutional separation of religion and state, Sufi Muslim marabouts exercise some influence on voters and politicians, particularly on subjects like homosexuality, marriage, and abortion rights.

Female representation in the cabinet is relatively poor. Women are better represented in the National Assembly, holding 73 seats and representing over 44 percent of the body after the 2022 legislative elections. This is partially due to a 2010 law requiring gender parity on candidate lists. Women’s overall rate of participation in politics, such as voting and engaging in local political activities, is nevertheless lower than men’s, and gender parity is less respected at the local level.

Due to high levels of discrimination and social stigma, LGBT+ people have no meaningful political representation.

President Sall, his cabinet, and national legislators determine government policies. However, power is concentrated in the executive branch, and the National Assembly is limited in its ability to check the president. The executive has blocked certain parliamentary inquiries into its activities. In May 2019, lawmakers approved a controversial measure to abolish the post of prime minister, which Sall promptly signed. In late 2021, the National Assembly voted to reinstate the position of prime minister, and a Sall appointee gained the post in September 2022.

Corruption remains a serious problem. Anticorruption laws are unevenly enforced and enforcement actions are sometimes viewed as politically motivated. The corruption case against Khalifa Sall, for example, was widely perceived as an effort to neutralize one of the president’s most powerful opponents.

In July 2022, the National Office for the Fight against Fraud and Corruption (OFNAC), a government anticorruption watchdog, signed an agreement with several civil society organizations establishing cooperation in implementing the national anticorruption strategy.

In December 2022, the Court of Auditors (CDCS) published an audit of public funds allocated to the COVID-19 response. The report identified extensive misuse of funds by the government, prompting public outcry and protests in favor of legal consequences.

The government generally operates with openness. However, authorities frequently award contracts without any formal tender process, and do not always publicly release contracts or bilateral agreements before they are signed.

Some decisions related to COVID-19 policies were also made opaquely. In 2020, following complaints to OFNAC over the nontransparent process for distributing pandemic-related food aid, then community development minister Mansour Faye vowed to refuse any OFNAC summons. Faye was nevertheless appointed infrastructure minister in November 2020, and later became minister for water and sanitation.

A 2014 law requires confidential asset disclosures by cabinet members, top National Assembly officials, and the managers of large public funds; the president’s asset disclosures are made public.

The constitution guarantees freedom of speech, and Senegal is home to many independent television and radio stations and print outlets. Although the overall media situation has improved considerably since President Sall was first elected in 2012, several subsequent developments have constrained press freedom.

A controversial law enacted in 2021 allows for prison terms of up to two years for defamation and three years for publishing “fake news” deemed likely to “discredit public institutions” or “prejudice public decency.” The law was applied multiple times in 2023 against journalists and activists.

Pape Alé Niang, who runs the news website Dakarmatin, was arrested in November 2022 on charges of violating the false news law and publishing antistate information; the charges were related to Niang’s reporting about a leaked government report that allegedly exonerated Sonko of the rape charge long before the trial concluded. Niang was released in January 2023 and then arrested again in July, this time reportedly on charges of “calling for insurrection and acts or maneuvers likely to compromise public security.” He was detained for several days before being released. Maty Sarr Niang, a journalist for independent news site Kéwoulo, was arrested in May 2023 and charged with undermining public security and “usurping the function of a journalist” due to her reporting; she remained in jail at year’s end.

In June, authorities cut the signal of the privately owned television station Walf TV during the station’s coverage of opposition protests. The suspension, which occurred without notice, lasted for a month and followed two shorter suspensions of the channel’s signal during demonstrations in March 2021 and February 2023. In March 2022, the Audiovisual Regulatory Council (CNRA) suspended two opposition-affiliated television channels for three days for alleged “breaches of ethics.”

There is no state religion, and freedom of worship is constitutionally protected and respected in practice. Muslims constitute 96 percent of the population.

Academic freedom is guaranteed by the constitution and generally respected in practice.

Private discussion is generally open and free. However, individuals have occasionally been arrested for social media posts deemed offensive by the government.

In 2018, the National Assembly passed an electronic-communications bill, which included a vaguely worded provision expanding the regulatory power of the government over social media companies. Rights activists expressed concern that the law could be used to shut down, tax, or surveil communications on popular social media platforms. In May 2022, President Sall expressed interest in expanding government oversight of social media.

In recent years, the government has disrupted internet service and partially blocked major social media outlets such as WhatsApp and YouTube in response to protests. During the June 2023 protests, the interior minister announced that to combat “dissemination of hate and subversive messages,” there would be restrictions on the use of social media platforms including TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube; three days later, access to mobile internet service was suspended in certain areas.

In 2021, the National Assembly amended the penal code and the code of criminal procedure, allegedly to combat terrorism. Opposition parties and civil society groups protested against the amended laws, saying they were too broad and could be used to silence dissent and expand police surveillance powers.

The constitution guarantees freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstrations, but the Ministry of the Interior must approve protests in advance. The government has often cracked down on assembly rights by banning protests around tense political moments and violently dispersing some demonstrations. In March 2022, the ECOWAS Court of Justice called for the repeal of a 2011 ban on political demonstrations in central Dakar.

According to the civil society project CartograFreeSenegal—which brought together journalists, cartographers, and other analysts to evaluate the June 2023 protests’ death toll—29 people were killed during the unrest. Hundreds of others were injured, and at least 500 people were arrested.

In November 2022, around 20 people were arrested during a banned protest in support of the release of political prisoners, and a journalist covering the demonstration was assaulted.

Even after most COVID-19-related assembly restrictions were lifted in March 2021, the government continued to ban demonstrations citing the possible spread of COVID-19.

Assembly rights of LGBT+ groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that support people living with HIV and AIDS are limited.

NGOs generally operate without interference from state or nonstate actors, though the ability of LGBT+ groups to function is impeded by assembly restrictions. Though anti–LGBT+ draft legislation introduced in 2021 was defeated in 2022, the operation and effectiveness of LGBT+ rights NGOs is impeded by homophobia and the criminalization of homosexuality.

In 2021, the National Assembly passed revisions to the penal code and code of criminal procedure—ostensibly intended to strengthen Senegal’s antiterrorism laws—that include provisions allowing NGO leaders to be criminally charged for alleged offenses committed by their organizations. Local and international rights groups have condemned the legislation, saying that the amendments are overly broad and could lead NGOs and their employees to self-censor for fear of being targeted for their work.

Workers, apart from security employees, have rights to organize, bargain collectively, and strike, though the right to strike is impinged by legal provisions that ban pickets and sit-down strikes, among other activities. Trade unions must be authorized by the Ministry of the Interior, and unions lack legal recourse if registration is denied.

The judiciary is formally independent and enjoys a relatively good reputation, but the president controls appointments to the Constitutional Council, the Court of Appeal, and the Council of State. Judges are prone to pressure from the government on matters involving high-level officials. The Higher Council of the Judiciary, which recommends judicial appointments to the executive branch, is headed by the president and minister of justice, which critics argue compromises its independence.

Numerous prosecutions of opposition politicians in the last several years, including Sonko in 2023, underscore concerns about political influence. However, ahead of the 2022 local elections and the 2024 presidential election, courts reinstated candidates who had previously been disqualified.

The law guarantees fair public trials and defendants’ rights, but arbitrary arrest and extended detention remain a concern. Though the government is obligated to supply attorneys to felony defendants who cannot afford them, this representation is inconsistent in practice. Lengthy pretrial detention remains a problem. The judicial system’s reach does not consistently extend to rural areas, which more often rely on traditional methods of conflict resolution.

Individuals are generally protected from the illegitimate use of physical force. However, security forces have used violence against protesters, killing several dozen and injuring hundreds in the past three years. Senegalese prisons are overcrowded, and human rights groups have documented incidents of excessive force and cruel treatment by prison authorities.

A low-level separatist conflict in the Casamance region is ongoing, though attacks by the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) have lessened since a de facto cease-fire was reached in 2012. Though fighting intensified again in 2022, the government and one of the MFDC separatist factions signed a peace agreement in August of that year.

The caste system is still prevalent among many of Senegal’s ethnic groups. Individuals of lower castes are subject to discrimination in employment. Women face persistent inequities in employment, health care, and education.

Same-sex sexual activity remains criminalized and is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine. While these laws are rarely enforced, LGBT+ people risk violence, threats, and mob attacks, as well as discrimination in housing, employment, and health care. In October 2023, a group of people in Kaolack exhumed the recently buried body of a man whom they believed to have been gay, and then dragged and burned the body.

Some LGBT+ people are forced to flee the country for their safety; the majority of Senegalese asylum applications in France in 2021 pertained to persecution over sexual orientation. In 2022, the parliament rejected a draft law that proposed increasing prison sentences for those found guilty of same-sex sexual activity and introducing criminal penalties for those who contribute to “any activity relating to the LGBT+ agenda.” Demonstrators rallied in support of increased criminal penalties for homosexuality throughout 2021 and 2022.

Citizens generally enjoy freedom of movement and can change their residence, employment, and educational institution without serious restrictions, though the threat of land mines and rebel activity has hindered travel through parts of the Casamance region. The intensification of the Casamance conflict in early 2022 displaced several thousand people.

The civil code facilitates ownership of private property, and property rights are generally respected. Commercial dispute-resolution processes can be drawn out. Property title and land-registration protocols are inconsistently applied, though the government has worked to ease property acquisition and registration. Husbands are legally regarded as heads of households. Traditional customs limit women’s ability to purchase property, and local rules on inheritance make it difficult for women to become beneficiaries.

Rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) have declined, due in part to campaigns to discourage the practice, but it remains a problem. The government launched a plan to reduce early marriage in 2016, given that almost one in three Senegalese girls married before age 18.

Rape was considered a misdemeanor before President Sall signed into law a measure criminalizing it in 2020.

The law allows abortion in life-threatening cases only, and abortions for medical reasons are difficult to obtain in practice. Several groups that consider abortion contrary to national values, including religious organizations, campaigned against legalizing abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Child labor remains a problem, particularly in the informal economy, and laws restricting the practice are inadequately enforced. Forced begging by students at religious schools is common, and teachers suspected of abuse are rarely prosecuted.

According to the 2023 edition of the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, the Senegalese government made significant strides in its efforts to eliminate trafficking during the coverage period, but still falls short of minimum standards in several areas.