Deputy in June 2006, when the parliamentary term was originally scheduled to end. In December 2006, Niasse was chosen as the candidate of Alternative 2007, a coalition of ten opposition parties, for the February 2007 presidential election. He was briefly detained by police in late January 2007, along with other opposition leaders, after participating in a banned protest regarding the delay of the next parliamentary election until June 2007. During the presidential campaign, Niasse blamed Wade for the Joola sea disaster; Wade in turn said that Niasse was a liar and that he was fortunate that he had not been jailed for crime he allegedly committed while serving as Prime Minister. According to final results, Niasse placed fourth in the presidential election with 5.93% of the vote. He won one of the country's 34 departments, that of Nioro. Niasse rejected the results, alleged fraud, and said that the election was "a farce", but also said that he did not intend to file an appeal regarding the results. Soon after the election, Wade mentioned Niasse as one of several opposition politicians who would be facing prosecution for corruption. Wade renewed an allegation, previously made in 2002, that Niasse had sold diplomatic passports to Taiwanese businessmen and others from that country. In the March 2009 local elections, the opposition coalition Benno Siggil Senegaal—which included Niasse and the AFP—performed well in Nioro Department and across the country. Shortly afterward, Niasse said that Wade should react to his party's poor performance by dissolving the National Assembly and the Senate and resigning as President. According to Niasse, Wade "betrayed the people of Senegal" and put the country "in a catastrophic situation". He also derided Wade for having what he described as a "paranoid fixation" on Nioro Department. In the February–March 2012 presidential election, Niasse stood again as a candidate and then backed Macky Sall against President Wade in the second round. Sall won the election. A few months later, Niasse was elected to the National Assembly in the July 2012 parliamentary election as a member of the coalition supporting President Sall. The presidential coalition won a large majority of seats. On 30 July 2012, he was elected as President of the National Assembly; he defeated opposition candidate Oumar Sarr, a loyalist of Wade. Niasse received 126 votes against 17 votes for Sarr; there were three blank votes. On 11 October 2013, Niasse was re-elected as