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Peculiarities of new National Assembly configuration.
Peculiarities of new National Assembly configuration.
The Constitutional Council, last Friday, proclaimed partial results of the February 9 Legislative election. In an official ceremony attended by the most important personalities of the country, the Chairman of the Council, Justice Clement Atangana, gave a roll call of 167 Members of Parliament-elect who were adjudged as having been duly elected by Cameroonians during last month’s vote.
Only 167 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly have been occupied because the Constitutional Council annulled the polling exercise in 11 constituencies in the North West and South West Regions, which total 13 Parliamentary seats.
So, even before the re-run polls are held in order to fill up the remaining seats, one can already point out a number of novelties in this new Legislative period that began on Tuesday, as opposed to what obtained in the last Legislative period.
Eight political parties present
Among such peculiarities is the number of political parties to be represented in the house of legislative. According to the results already made public, eight political parties will be in the National Assembly this term, unlike seven in the previous Legislature.
The political parties are the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Party, CPDM, which has 139 seats; the National Union for Democracy and Progress, UNDP, with seven; the Social Democratic Front, SDF, and the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, with five seats each; the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU, 4; the Cameroon National Salvation Front, FSNC-3; the Movement for the Defence of the Republic -2 as well as the Union of Socialist Movement, UMS, with 2. There however are chances of the number of political parties increasing given that six different political parties are still running for the upcoming repeat polls in the two English-speaking Regions. The parties are the CPDM, SDF, UDP, BRIC, and CDP.
Apart from the increase in number of political parties, two of them are making their debut in Parliamentary business. One of them is the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, and the Union for Socialist Movement, UMS.
Number of women slightly up
Another peculiar aspect in this new Legislative window is the slight increase in the number of women as opposed to the preceding one. Following results proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, 58 women were elected into the National Assembly, two up from the 56 that were in the last Legislative period. The Electoral Code, recall, makes particular insistence on the respect for sociological components and gender consideration when constituting lists for Legislative and Council polls in the country. Most of the women however will be having a taste of Legislative experience for their first time. In the West Region, for instance, 10 of the 25 MPs-elect are women.
Old eaces still around
Also, the number of new faces is what makes this new Legislative period different from the previous one. Of the 167 Members of Parliament already known, 93 of them are new comers. Some of them are either coming back after spending some years out of the National Assembly or they’ll be walking into the Ngoa-Ekelle Glass House for the first time ever. Most of the new faces are quite young and dynamic. The MP-elect for the Buea Urban constituency, Donald Malomba Esembe, for instance, is just 34 years old. There are many others in the neigbourhood of his age bracket, we gathered.
The new names notwithstanding, some of the traditional old faces in the Assembly will still be around for the next five years. Among them is the long-serving Speaker of the House, Hon Cavayé Yeguie Djibril who was re-elected in his Mayo Sava constituency. Cavaye has been MP since 1972 and has served as National Assembly Speaker since 1992. Other prominent and familiar old names that were re-elected include Honorables Theophile Baoro, Hilarion Etong, Theodore Datouo, Roger Nkodo Dang, Joshua Osih, Jean Michel Nintcheu, and Emilia Monjowa Lifaka.
Adapted from Cameroon Insider.