Me Christian Ntimbane Bomo, lawyer and potential candidate for the 2025 presidential election, stressed that the electoral code in force does not impose the need for a political party to have elected officials to present a candidate for the presidential election.
According to Article 121 of the Electoral Code, a candidate may be presented by a political party or run as an independent, provided that they collect at least 300 signatures of support. Given that political parties do not have representatives in the National Assembly, the Senate, regional or municipal councils, the condition of investiture by a political party becomes obsolete.
The article concerning parties without representation in these bodies regulates a situation that has no legal basis. Consequently, this requirement cannot be applied.
Read below the explanation of Me Christian Ntimbane Bomo:
Article 121 of the Electoral Code provides:
“Candidates may be:
(1-) Either invested by a political party
(2-) independent on condition that they are presented as candidates for the presidential election by at least 300 personalities, originating from all regions, at a rate of 30 per region and possessing the status of either members of parliament or a consular chamber, or regional councilor or municipal councilor, or traditional chief of the first degree
(2) The candidate invested by a political party not represented in the National Assembly, the Senate, in a Regional Council or in a Municipal Council must also meet the conditions provided for in paragraph (1) above applicable to independent candidates. “
Reading this article which sets the conditions for candidacy in the presidential election, the principle is that any person who wants to run in the presidential election must be invested by a political party or be an independent candidate with 300 signatures.
Paragraph 2 of this article indicates that the candidate invested by a political party not REPRESENTED in the National Assembly, the Senate, a Regional Council and a Municipal Council must meet the condition of 300 signatures.
In other words, if a political party does not have elected representatives who represent it in Parliament or in decentralized communities, namely regions and town halls, it cannot invest a candidate.
However, it turns out that in the current state of Cameroonian law, no party is represented in the National Assembly, the Senate, the Regional Council or a Municipal Council.
1- With regard to the National Assembly, the deputies are not deputies of a party, but of the nation. They therefore do not represent the parties. This is because the imperative mandate is prohibited by the Constitution.
Article 15 of the Constitution:
“(2) Each deputy REPRESENTS the entire Nation”
(3) Any imperative mandate is null”
- This is the case for senators who represent decentralized local authorities and not political parties:
Article 20 of the Constitution:
“The Senate REPRESENTS decentralized local authorities”
- Regarding municipal and regional councilors, they do not represent political parties.
Article 55 of the Constitution defines them as follows:
“Decentralized local authorities are legal entities under public law. They enjoy administrative and financial autonomy for the management of regional and local interests. “
Consequently, paragraph 2 of Article 121 of the Electoral Code, which refers to a party not represented in the National Assembly, the Senate, or regional and municipal councils, regulates a legally non-existent situation. Hence the inapplicability of such a condition.
Because as indicated above, no political party is legally represented in the National Assembly, the Senate, or in regional and municipal councils.
Christian Ntimbane Bomo
Civil Society of Reconciliators
Candidate declared for the presidential election.
