Editorial: Untold truths behind extension of MPs’ mandate.

Admittedly, the constitution stipulates in Article 15 (4) that: "In case of serious crisis, or where circumstances so warrant, the President of the Republic may, after consultation with the President of the Constitutional Council and Bureau of the National Assembly and the Senate, request the National Assembly to decide, by a law, to extend or abridge the term of office of municipal councillors and MPs".

So, what is the "serious crisis" or "circumstances" that warranted the extension of the mandates of legislators by a full year?

In providing the answer, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies, François Bolvine Wakata, said there was the need to ensure ‘better organisation’ of the 2025 polls.

As per the explanatory statement of the bill, the extension was “warranted by the need to lighten the electoral calendar, which provides for 4 (four) elections in 2025; namely the election of Members of the National Assembly and Municipal Councillors, as well as the election of the President of the Republic and Regional Councillors”. 

It further explained that “apart from the election of Regional Councillors, the other elections, which are direct ballots, require the deployment of substantial human, material and financial resources”. 

The bill further justifies that based on the aforementioned reasons, it is “judicious to spread the above mentioned elections over the years 2025 and 2026, so as to ensure better organisation”.

As expected, the bill was passed by acclamation, especially by the majority CPDM MPs.

The opposition political class has been unanimous in the condemnation. Hon Jean-Michel Nintcheu, elected under the banner of the Social Democratic Front, but supports Maurice Kamto in a coalition known as Political Alliance for Change, described the extension as “crude and pathetic political manipulation.”

For Hon Adamou Koupit, MP of the Cameroon Union, CDU, the extension is not justified.

“The text says the mandate can be extended if the country is faced with a serious crisis. We all know that there is no crisis in the country,” Adamou Koupit said.

The president of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, Hon Cabral Libii, is quoted by the BBC as saying: “We voted against, but we are in the minority”.

He added that the postponement gives “the impression of unpreparedness on the part of government”. 

Member of the Constitutional Laws Committee, Cabral Libii, confided that his party was already preparing their candidacies, pending a possible convening next November, of the electoral body for the legislative and municipal elections. 

For him, the postponement of the mandate of MPs and probably of municipal councillors, will also result in an election of regional councillors by illegal municipal councillors.

“We had already done it in 2020, why are we continuing to do it?”, he questioned. 

In 2018, the authorities cited the same financial reasons for postponing the legislative and municipal elections by 15 months.

For the moment, it is a foregone conclusion that the mandate of municipal councillors will also be extended as proposed by Hon. Osih in parliament! In 2018 and 2013, President Biya issued a decree to extend the mandate of municipal councillors.

There are crucial questions about the motivations and implications of the mandate extension, particularly in view of the 2025 presidential election.

Is Maurice Kamto a political target? The BBC questioned after the postponement and went further to ask: "2025 presidential election in Cameroon: Is Paul Biya clearing his path?".

The questions have emerged repeatedly with insinuations in various media commentaries that it is aimed at eliminating Maurice Kamto from the 2025 presidential election. 

Judging by the last presidential election, Kamto embodies a serious threat to the CPDM regime.

Viewed from that perspective, the extension could be seen as a political maneuver, aimed at weakening and disqualifying Kamto from the next presidential election. The MRC, having boycotted the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, currently does not have any MP or municipal councillor and therefore cannot nominate a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

The party had been banking on scooping some municipal councillors and parliamentarians if elections were held before the October 2025 presidential poll.

In July last year, as if sensing the extension, Kamto announced that “the MRC demands respect of the electoral calendar, for the holding of legislative and municipal elections in 2025”.

But with the extension, he may have to opt for an independent candidacy, which would require the signature of 30 persons such as first-class chiefs, senators, parliamentarians from each of the 10 Regions. Whether that is achievable is a debate for another day. 

Kamto is, however, on record to have said come rain, come shine, he is a candidate for next year’s presidential election.

Government's intentions for postponing the elections, though constitutional, should not be made to leave any iota of doubt that it is directed at eliminating potential challengers. 

No matter from which direction one looks at the development, the conclusion can only be that it makes a mockery of Cameroon’s democracy. 

Many are yet to come to terms with the fact that the same President Biya, who is crowding the political field with political outfits to ‘enrich democratic debates’, is at the same time cunningly eliminating credible opposition political parties from next year’s presidential election with a constitutional provision.

If the president can use his constitutional prerogative to change the electoral calendar, he should, in the same vein, instruct the amendment of the electoral laws, so as not to give the impression, falsely or rightly, that he is afraid of democratic competition. That would be the only way to prove his democratic legacy in October 2025.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3165 of Thursday July 10, 2024