As political parties that submitted nomination papers to run for the September 30, 2013 twin legislative and municipal elections await the publication of the accepted lists by Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, they have to also think of filing petitions in case their lists are rejected.

When the accepted list will be published towards the end of this week, the political parties will have little time to file the petitions in compliance with the Electoral Code.

Legislative Election

Section 132 (2) of the Electoral Code states that, “The Constitutional Council shall rule on all petitions filed by any candidate, any political party which took part in the election or any person serving as a representative of the administration for the election, requesting the total or partial cancellation of election operations.”

The Electoral Code in Section 133 (1) gives clarifications by stating that, “All petitions filed in pursuant of the provisions of Section 132 must reach the Constitutional Council within no more than 72 hours of the close of the poll. Although nothing is mentioned about filing of  petitions after the publication of lists of contesting parties and candidates, the same rule is applied. This means that the petitions must be filed within three days from the day of the publication of the lists.

Municipal Election

Section 194 of the Electoral Code makes it clear that, “Any elector, candidate or person acting in the capacity of a government election officer may petition for the cancellation of elections in the council concerned before the competent administrative courts.” It adds in paragraph 2 that, “The disputes shall be a simple petition filed within five days following the proclamation of results by the Council Supervisory Commission.” The same rules for petitions after the publication of election results, apply to the publication of the lists of accepted candidates.