Members of Parliament will today, March 6, 2012 converge on the Ngoa-Ekelle Glass House for the opening plenary sitting of the first ordinary session of the National Assembly for the 2012 legislative year. This will be in a premises that has been given a face lift with the whole environment cleaned up, broken tiles in the ceremonial hall replaced and everything put in place for a hitch-free event.
The specificity of the parliamentary session that opens this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. following a release from the House Bureau signed by the Speaker, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, will be the election of new bureau members. The opening plenary sitting will be chaired by a provisional bureau comprised of the eldest Member of Parliament and the two youngest ones and they will be at the rostrum till a new bureau is elected.
Another specificity of the March 2012 ordinary session is that it may be the last for the eighth legislative period of the National Assembly that started with the election of the Members of Parliament in July 22, 2007 twin legislative and council elections. New elections are expected this year.
The March ordinary session of the National Assembly also opens at a moment government is working on improving Cameroon’s electoral process. Prime Minister, Head of Government Philemon Yang on the instructions of the Head of State, Paul Biya, has just had a series of consultation meetings with leaders of political parties, civil society organisations, religious bodies and Cameroon’s development partners in view of codifying the country’s electoral law. The Electoral Board members of the elections and referenda governing institution, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) are also holding consultation meetings with political stakeholders and development partners on the recompilation of voters’ register. All these consultation meetings show the manifest will of government to reform the electoral process. With these developments, bills on electoral reforms are highly expected to be tabled for scrutiny during the March session of Parliament. They may likely be an implementation of the Head of State’s announcement during the swearing-in ceremony at the National Assembly on November 3, 2011 that he will continue to reform the country’ electoral process.
The press that has been speculating much on bills to be voted during the session, have been manifesting interest to cover deliberations. Reliable sources at the Communication Unit of the National Assembly disclosed on March 5, 2012 that many press organs had submitted applications for accreditation.
