Senatorial Elections: Constitutional Council to publish results within 15 days
Municipal Councillors went to the polls this Sunday, 25th March to for the second Sentorial elections in Cameroon.
After voting ended at the different polling stations, the votes that were cast were immediately tallied.
Results at the level of polling stations were dispatched to the regional voting counting commission.
Consequently, regional commissions have been compiling all the reports from the divisions before transmission to the national vote counting commission in Yaoundé.
The Constitutional Council will eventually release the final results after a period of fifteen days. The workers of the general secretariat of the Constitution Council are bracing up to swing into action in the electoral process.
So far, the National Vote counting commission has already been set up and they are expecting files from the regions.
The vote counting commission has five days to compile the results from all the constituencies.
Nine political parties took part in the senatorial elections. Two political parties competed in all ten regions while the others competed in one or more regions.
The candidates and political parties who took part in the senatorial elections of March 25th, 2018 can also petition the constitutional Council within three days if they have evidence of irregularities that could warrant the cancellation of results in some or all polling stations.
Accordingly to Law n° 2012/001 of 19 April 2012 relating to the Electoral Code, amended and supplemented by law n° 2012/017 of 21 December 2012, in Chapter XII on electoral disputes and proclamation of results indicates that;
SECTION 239.-(1) The Constitutional Council shall ensure the regularity of the election of senators.
(2) Senatorial elections disputes shall be settled in accordance with the provisions of Sections 133 and 136 of this law.
SECTION 240.- (1) The constitutional council shall proclaim the results of the election of senators within 15 (fifteen) days following the close of the poll.
(2) The report on the conduct of elections and proclamation of results shall be prepared by the Constitutional Council in four copies. It shall file the original and send the 3 (three) other copies to the Senate, the Ministry in charge of local and regional authorities and the Electoral Board, respectively.
(3) The results of the election shall be published according to the procedure of urgency and inserted in the Official Gazette in English and French.
Regarding the results the electoral code stipulates that, where a list obtains an absolute majority of the votes cast, it shall be declared the winner of the elections, filling all 7 (seven) seats.
Where no list obtains an absolute majority of the votes cast, the list with a relative majority shall be awarded half of the seats to be filled rounded up to the next whole number, that is, 4 (four) seats.
Lists with less than 5% of the votes cast in the Region shall be excluded from the sharing.
Elvis Teke
