Re-electoral Petitions: Preparations For Rulings Gather Steam

Attention in the ongoing process for the election of Regional Councillors coming up on December 6, 2020 will this week shift to the competent administrative courts where rulings on petitions calling for the cancellation of the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) decision to reject some lists and others calling for the annulment of the some accepted lists have been filed.

The Electoral Board published the lists of accepted and rejected lists of candidates on October 2, 2020 and according to the Section 259 (2) of the Electoral Code « The petition shall be lodged with the competent administrative court, within no more than five days of the notification of the rejection or acceptance. »  This implies that the last day for the filing of petitions was October 7, 2020. As for when the petitions have to be ruled on Section 259 (3) of the Electoral Code states that, « The competent administrative courts shall give a ruling within seven days of the lodgement of the petition. Its decision shall be communicated forthwith to the Electoral Board, for enforcement ». The competent administrative courts therefore have to rule on the petitions by Wednesday, October 14, 2020.

Indeed, the publication of the lists of candidates accepted or rejected by the Electoral Board of ELECAM aroused much tension considering the petitions filed in the administrative courts. In the Centre Region, for example, the administrative court will rule on 10 petitions. Some of the petitions call for the rehabilitation of the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC) lists in the category of the Delegates of Divisions in Nyong et So’o and rehabilitation of the FDC in Mefou et Akono. There are also petitions calling for the cancellation of the lists of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) in Nyong et So’o and ...