Third senate legislature opens today.

Today’s opening session will be a déjà vu for Senators who are returning to the house for a third or second mandate. For those who are going to be making their debut, today’s session will mark the start of a new experience in 'service' to fatherland.

When business opens at the legislative chamber at sunrise today, the 70 elected Senators and 30 others the Head of State, President Paul Biya, appointed, will be expected to provide details relating to their persons. The verification would then progress to the giving of insignias to the lawmakers. This is the element that makes the gathering a session as of right.

Added to this, the session would also provide an avenue for the putting in place of a new bureau to run the affairs of the Senate for the next one year. Except otherwise, observers say the chances of any surprises in putting up a new Senate bureau are very slim.

It is almost certain that Niat Njifenji Marcel, 86, who has been battling with ill health, would retain the seat of President of the Senate. He has been heading the institution since it came into being in 2013.

Unlike the first and second Senate legislatures of 2013 and 2018, the third legislature will be void of an opposition Parliamentary Group. 

The law requires that an opposition party has at least seven Senators to form a Parliamentary Group. 

In the first and second legislatures, the opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF party had 14 and 7 elected Senators respectively.

The party of John Fru Ndi is unfortunately returning to the Upper House of Parliament this time at the whims and caprices of President Paul Biya, who appointed its list leader for the election in the North West Region, Mochiggle  Vanigansen.

Vanigansen was among 30 others whom Biya appointed on April 2. But for those appointments, Cameroon’s third Senate legislature would have entered the record books as a one-party house. 

In addition to the SDF, Biya also appointed one person from other parties viz; the Union Des Population du Cameroun, UPC, the National Salvation Front, FSNC, the National Alliance for Democracy and Progress, ANDP and the National Union for Democracy and Progress, UNDP. 

The Senatorial election took place on March 12, 2023. In that exercise, the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, party 'won' all 70 elective seats.