By DOH JAMES SONKEY
New faces of men and women of the Lower House of Parliament will early this March, 2020 be seen at the National Assembly in Yaounde following the publication of a list of the first elected 167 out of 180 Members of the National Assembly to kick-start the 10th legislature. The list was published by the Constitutional Council last February 28, 2020 in the inaugural hall of the Yaounde Conference Centre during a solemn ceremony to proclaim results of last February 9 legislative election.
The results were proclaimed in the presence of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute who led a delegation of members of government, Members of the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, the Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC, Heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Yaounde and candidates who took part in the elections.
President of Constitutional Council, Clement Atangana opened hearings for the proclamation of results of the February 9 for the election of members of the National Assembly with a speech whereby he highlighted the different stages of the electoral process.
Different members of the council readout the results, division by division in each region detailing the statistics of participation and scores obtained by each party.
In his speech, the President of the Constitutional Council, Clement Atangana gave the following national statistics on last February 9 Legislative Election, “Registered voters: 6 900 928, voters: 3 021 947, Abstentions: 3 878 981, Participation Rate: 43, 79%, Empty ballots : 79 753, Valid votes: 2 942 194.”
He announced that results of legislative election of last February 9, 2020 indicate that “CPDM is overall best winner with 139 Seats, NUDP grabbed 07 seats, SDF won 05 seats, PCRN: 05 seats, UDC: 04 seats, FSNC: 03 seats, MDR: won 02 seats and UMS: 02 seats also.”
167 members of the National Assembly elected out of 180
The proclamation of results by the Constitutional Council signals the end of the electoral process that began with the convening of the electorate.
However, the Constitutional Council cancelled elections in 11 constituencies in the North West and South West regions.
Following the cancellation of results in 11 constituencies, 10 in the North West and 1 in the South West before the proclamation of results, Elections Cameroon has to organise a rerun in these constituencies within 20 to 40 days from the date of cancellation, as stipulated by the Electoral Code.
The National Assembly is therefore expected to begin meeting in its first session as of right this March 2020 pending the elections of 13 members of the election rerun.