During the opening ceremony of the judicial year 2025, Mahamadou Mansour Mbaye, Premier président de la Cour suprême, highlighted the urgent need to revise certain legislative texts to ensure better coherence and greater legal clarity. In his speech, relayed by Sud Quotidien, he underlined the importance of adopting a comprehensive and systematic approach in the updating of laws, particularly in sensitive areas such as electoral and criminal law. “It is necessary to re-read several of our texts in order to ensure their better coherence”, declared Mahamadou Mansour Mbaye. Since 2016, the numerous submissions addressed to the Conseil constitutionnel have highlighted legislative ambiguities, necessitating a clarification of the intentions of the législateur électoral et du Pouvoir constituant. Although judges are entrusted with the task of interpreting the law, certain provisions remain insufficiently precise, which complicates their application and understanding. For the Premier président, partial legislative amendments often contribute to the confusion and inconsistency of the texts, making a structural reform rather than one-off adjustments necessary. “These matters must be examined with rigor and deepened by the doctrine”, he added, calling for collaboration between jurists and legislators to strengthen the quality of laws. Mahamadou Mansour Mbaye also referred to the Assises de la Justice, a dialogue framework that has allowed citizens and professionals to examine the functioning of the judicial system. It recognised that, although the high judicial hierarchy did not play a central role during these meetings, they did shed light on certain shortcomings perceived only by those initiated into the system.
Justice and reform: A new era for legislative coherence
