DAKAR: Senegal´s Prime Minister Aminata Toure, who has only been in power since September 2013, has been removed from office less than a week after her ruling party was beaten in local elections.
Toure “is no longer prime minister, she was sacked,” said one of her advisors. According to another of her officials, Toure was sacked by President Macky Sall who “asked her to leave”.
The Senegalese Press Agency and national radio both reported that Toure had left government. Toure, head of the Alliance for the Republic (APR), was named prime minister last year to replace incumbent Abdoul Mbaye.
Her departure comes less than a week after preliminary results from local elections showed defeats for the APR in Dakar and a number of key cities across the country.
Official results are still being awaited. Many members of the government who were running in the local polls were beaten in their strongholds — a blow for the APR who controlled only a few towns before the election and were hoping to reinforce their local support bases.
More than 5.3 million people were eligible to vote for more than 2,700 councillors across the country.