June Parliamentray Session Opens Tomorrow

The June 2012 ordinary session of the National Assembly for the ongoing 2012 legislative year begins at the Ngoa-Ekelle Glass House on Tuesday, June 5, following the Bureau Order of the House signed by the Speaker, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril. The opening plenary sitting to be chaired by the House Speaker will begin at 4:00 p.m.

The second ordinary session of the National Assembly will be taking place within a political climate in which the various actors are gathering steam for future political challenges. The National Assembly during the March 2012 session voted for the extension of the term of office of the Members of Parliament for the ongoing eighth legislative period by six months renewable starting from August 21, 2012 and the Head of State, President Paul Biya later on promulgated the bill into law. President Biya also on May 31, 2012 signed a decree extending the mandate of municipal councillors by 12 months (one year) starting from July 31, 2012. All these are pointers to the fact that legislative and municipal elections will only take place in 2013. If as in the previous cases, the legislative and municipal elections are to take place at the same time, it means that the mandate of MPs is still to be renewed. The Members of Parliament will therefore be meeting within the backdrop of hopes that they may still be at the Ngoa-Ekelle Glass Palace for another year.

Different political parties have started preparing for the upcoming biometric recompilation of electoral register and subsequent elections governed by the harmonised electoral code President Biya promulgated into law on April 19, 2012. The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) MPs will start the parliamentary session just fresh from the information and sensitisation seminars the party hierarchy organised at all regional headquarters on Saturday, May 2. The seminars that will hold at the level of all CPDM sections by July 2012 concern the explanation of innovations on the party texts adopted during the September 2011 third ordinary congress in Yaounde, the harmonised electoral code and preparations for the recompilation of the electoral register ahead of 2013 elections.

Government has also intensified the fight against corruption the apex being the recent arrest and detention of the former Prime Minister, Chief Ephraim Inoni and Minister of State for Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Marafa Hamidou Yaya. The Special Criminal Court is gradually taking off with officials appointed and it is hoped that soon cases concerning corruption and embezzlement of public funds will be judged within the time limit stated in the law. It is in this political environment that the June session will be holding.