Law N° 2008/001 of 14 April 2008 Amending the Constitution of Cameroon

Law N° 2008/001 of 14 April 2008 to amend and supplement some provisions of law N° 96/6 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June 1972.

The National Assembly deliberated and adopted, the President of the Republic hereby enacts the law set out below:

Section 1: The provisions of Articles 6(2) and (4), 14(3) (a), 15(1), 53 and 67(6) of Law N° 96/6 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June 1972 are amended as follows:

Art. 6
(2)(new) The President of the Republic shall be elected for term of office of 7(seven) years. He shall be eligible for re-election.

(4)(new) Where the office of President of the Republic becomes vacant as a result of death, resignation or permanent incapacity duly ascertained by the Constitutional Council, the polls for the election of the new President of the Republic must be held not less than 20(twenty) days and not more than 120 (one hundred and twenty days after the office becomes vacant.

(a)The President of the Senate shall as of right act as interim President of the Republic until the new President of the Republic is elected. Where the President of the Senate is unable to exercise his powers, they shall be exercised by his Vice, following the order of precedence.
(b) The interim President of the Republic – the President of the Senate or his Vice may neither amend the Constitution nor the composition of the government. He may not organize a referendum or run for the office of President of the Republic.
(c) However, where the organization of the presidential election requires, the interim President of the Republic may, after consultation with the Constitutional Council, amend the composition of the government.

Art. 14.
(3) Both houses of parliament shall meet on the same dates:

(a)(new) in ordinary session during the months of March, June and November each year, when convened by the Bureaux of the National Assembly and the Senate, after consultation with the President of the Republic;

Art. 15
(4)(new): In case of serious crisis or where circumstances so warrant, the President of the Republic may, after consultation with the President of the Constitutional Council and Bureaux of the National Assembly and the Senate, request the National Assembly to decide, by law, to extend or abridge its term of office. In this case, the election of a new Assembly shall take place not less than 40 (forty) days and not more than 120 (one hundred and twenty) days following the expiry of the extension or abridgement period.

Art. 51
(1)(new): The Constitutional Council shall comprise 11 (eleven) members designated for an eventually renewable term of office of 6 (six) years.
These members shall be chosen from among personalities of established professional renown.
They must be of high moral integrity and proven competence.

PART VII- THE COURT OF IMPEACHMENT

Art. 53 (new)

(1)The Court of impeachment shall have jurisdiction, in respect of acts committed in the exercise of their functions to try;
- The President of the Republic for high treason;
- The Prime Minister, members of government and persons ranking as such and senior government officials to whom powers have been delegated in pursuance of Articles 10 and 12 above, for conspiracy against the security of the State.

(2) The President of the Republic shall be indicted only by the National Assembly and the Senate deciding through an identical vote by open ballot and by a four fifth majority of their members.
(3) Acts committed by the President of the Republic in pursuance of Articles 5, 8, 9 and 10 above shall be covered by immunity and he shall not be accountable for them after the exercise of his functions;

(4) The organization, composition and the conditions under which matters shall be referred to as well as the procedure applicable before the Court of Impeachment shall be laid down by law.

PART XIII – Transitional and final provisions

Art. 67
(6)(new): Where the Senate is put in place before the regions, the electoral college for the election of Senators shall comprise exclusively Municipal Councillors.

Section 2:  This law shall be registered, published according to the procedure of urgency and inserted in the official gazette in English and French.

Yaounde, the 14th april 2008
The President of the Republic,
(é) PAUL BIYA

Comments

[martin]

This is the fall of democracy in cameroon.when my swedish friends saw this news,they saw it as fun!Cameroon MP's and Biya shame on you

[Macadamia Cake]

Third term–beginning in 2011, after 25 years? WTF is that? He knows his sheep people very very well. They will just bleat a little and then they will be back chewing the cud. One thing that will set them off is if he messes with their food, and he just might, because he is out of touch.

[Umkhonto We Sizwe]

AFRICA HAS LOST A GREAT SON TODAY IN THE PERSON OF AIME CESAIRE,THE ETERNAL FATHER OF BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS,THE UNREPENTANT COMBATTANT OF COLONIALISM AND NEOCOLONIALISM.LET AFRICA MOURN THIS DAY AND LET THE BLACKMAN WHEREVER HE RESIDES REMEMBER THIS DAY AS A COMMEMORATION OF OUR STRUGGLE AGAINST NEOCOLONIALISM.

GLORY AND ETERNAL LIFE TO AIME CESAIRE.WE SHALL CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE.

[tiafack elvs]

There is a reason for any action. If time, climete,etc is changing, let the constitution also change to meet up with these changes

[banteh keith]

Cameroon is emerging but my surprise is de rate of corruption

[banteh keith]

Cameroonians lets be more be more patriotic in our activities expecially with the case of boko haram