Nourane Foster, an MP of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN), has said she is going to vote against a bill tabled at the National Assembly to extend the mandate of parliamentarians and municipal councilors.
In proposed legislation No.2061/PJL/AN, the government is seeking to postpone next year’s municipal and legislative elections to 2026.
Their current mandates are expected to end in 2025, and elections are organised.
But the government says holding the elections next year alongside the Presidential and Regional elections will weigh down financially on the State.
“The justification for this delay is based on the need to lighten the electoral calendar, which provides for four (04) elections during the year 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,” the government explained in a proposed bill sent to Parliament.
“In this regard, and apart from the election of regional councillors, the other elections, which are direct ballots, require significant human, material, and financial deployment. It is therefore wise to spread the aforementioned electoral votes over the years 2025 and 2026, so as to guarantee better organisation,” it furthers.
The draft law has, however, not gone down well with some opposition politicians.
Nourane Foster, an MP of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, has voiced against it, saying Cameroonians must be allowed to vote for their representatives in 2025.
“I will vote NO because I believe that political cards must be redistributed and allow Cameroonians to elect new deputies and mayors in 2025,” Hon Foster stated.
The law is likely to be adopted by the National Assembly, where the governing Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, enjoys a comfortable majority.
“My vote, out of 175 others will mean nothing but I will still vote NO,” emphasised the MP, who refers to herself as the strength of the Cameroonian youth.
Elected in 2020, Nourane Foster says she has had a terrible experience in an environment where the law is dictated and where attacks on her person are frequent.
It should be recalled that this is not the first time the government has extended the mandates of Municipal Councillors and MPs.
In March 2012, their mandates were extended by six months and later renewed, with elections held in September 2013.
Members of the seventh legislature had their mandates extended from 2018 to 2020.
