The Senate is the

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

of the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

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 ...

. It consists of 100 members with 70 of them being elected and 30 being appointed by the President of Cameroon, divided among the ten regions of the country.

History

The Senate was created in 1996 after an amendment to the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

created the upper chamber. However, power to convene the Electoral College and call elections for the Senate remained with the President. President

Paul Biya Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo, 13 February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth Prime Minister of Cameroon, prime minister under Pre ...

chose not to do so until he signed decree 2013/056 on 27 February 2013, which set 14 April as the election date.

Electoral system

The Senate has 100 seats, of which 70 are elected and 30 appointed by the President, with each

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

having 10 Senators. The elected seats are elected by the 10,636 members of the 360 municipal councils. Elections to the Senate were held for the first time on 14 April 2013.Focus On: Cameroon's First Senate Race
IFES Marcel Niat Njifenji was elected as President of the Senate on 12 June 2013. The President of the Senate is the constitutionally designated successor to the President of the Republic in case of a vacancy in the latter office.

Presidents of the Senate

Current members of the Senate

The Senate consists of 70 members directly elected by their regions and 30 nominated by the President of Cameroon.

References

{{National upper houses Politics of Cameroon

2013 establishments in Cameroon