Elections in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

occur in a system of electoral autocracy, as the ruling party (which has been in power since independence in 1960) manipulates elections and represses political opposition. Cameroon elects on a national level, a

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

– the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

– and a

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

. The president is elected for a seven-year term by the people; a two-term limit on the office was removed through a parliamentary vote in April 2008. The

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

(''Assemblée Nationale'') has 180 members, elected for a five-year term in 49 single and multi-seat

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. Cameroon also has a Senate, with 100 elected officials, each serving 5 years. 70 of these are elected by a regional council, while 30 are elected directly from the president. Cameroon is a one party dominant state with the

Cameroon People's Democratic Movement The Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM; , RDPC) is the ruling political party in Cameroon. Previously known as the Cameroonian National Union, which had dominated Cameroon politics since independence in the 1960s, it was renamed in 1985 ...

in power. Opposition

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. Elections are manipulated in favor of the ruling party. Independent candidates are barred from running in parliamentary and municipal elections. They are permitted to run in presidential elections, but there has never been an independent presidential candidate due to the very exacting legal requirements for an independent candidacy.

Federal Elections

Since 1990, multiple parties have been able to run in federal elections, with 1992 being the first year of municipal elections. 1996 was then the first year of multiple parties running for the presidential office. Later down the line, The National Assembly worked to limit the amount of issues by passing a National Elections Observatory in 2000. The NEO works to supervise local and legislative elections across the country.

Eligibility to Vote

In order to be able to vote in Cameroon, voters must be at least 20 years of age on the day of the election. As of 2009, people are able to be register to vote between January 1st and April 30th and must register to vote at that time to vote. During this period, people head to registration offices located throughout the country.

Eligibility to Run

Parliamentary Elections

There are numerous criteria to be able to run for Parliament such as being able read and write in French or English, be nominated or presented by a political party, be 23 years of age, being a Cameroonian born citizen, paying the Treasury to indicate a parliament run and not have been declared ineligible to run.

Presidential Elections

According to Article 8 of the Chapter 1 of the Cameroonian Constitution, those attempting a presidential bid must be at least 35 years of age and born in Cameroon. The person must than be able to show that they live in Cameroon as further prove as citizenship.

References

External links

Adam Carr's Election Archive
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