By Etienne Mainimo Mengnjo
Members of the Cameroon National Assembly will soon see their term of office extended by one year if the bill tabled in Parliament is adopted.
This is one among the bills (Bill No 2061 / PJL / AN) deposited in Parliament on July 6 in a plenary sitting that was chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril.
If adopted, the terms of office of Members of Parliament will be extended from March 10 2025 to March 30, 2026.
The bill is prepared is pursuant to the provisions of article 15(4) of the Cameroon Constitution which stipulates that “In case of a serious crisis, or where the 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 Senate, request the National Assembly to decide, by law, to extend or abridge its terms of office.”
However, the extension of the terms of office of the MPs, is motivated by the need to lightened the electoral calendar which provides for four elections in 2025. This includes, the election of Members of the National Assembly and Municipal Councilors, as well as the election of the President of the Republic of Cameroon and Regional Councilors.
As a result, and apart from the election of Regional Councilors, the other elections which are direct ballots require the deployment of substantial human, material and financial resources. Going by this, it s of outmost importance to spread the elections in the year 2025 and 2026 so as to ensure better organization.
It is worth noting that the bill alongside other bills were deem admissible at the Chairman’s Conference that was chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly, before presenting them in a Plenary Sitting on July 6.
Additionally, another bill (Bill N°2060/PJL/AN) to ratify Ordinance N°2024/001 of 20 June 2024 amending and supplementing certain provisions of Law N°2023/019 of 19 December 2023 to lay down the Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon for the financial year 2024 was also deposited at the National Assembly.
Bill No. 2060 is under scrutiny by the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee, while Bill No. 2061 is being reviewed by the Constitutional Laws Committee. Once scrutinized, both bills will return to the National Assembly for adoption and will subsequently be forwarded to the Senate and the President of the Republic for promulgation into law.
During the Plenary Sitting on July 6, a general debate on the Budget Orientation document took place, with 12 Members of Parliament posing questions to government members. The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, addressed all the questions.
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