Cameroon’s New Senate: An (Anti)Democratic Anachronism

By Dibussi Tande

"The new Senate has no power to impeach the president, to approve or reject presidential appointees to the executive and judicial branch... and no power to conduct investigations of malfeasance in the executive branch. In short... the Cameroonian Senate has no power of restraint over the executive branch."

On February 27, 2013, some 17 years after the 1996 constitution established  the Senate as the upper house of parliament, President Biya finally signed decree N° 2013/056 scheduling the first ever Senate elections in Cameroon for April 14, 2013. As with past elections, this date was chosen on a whim, or more precisely, at the discretion of the president who ignored persistent calls that municipal elections be organized prior to the senatorial elections since the mandate of municipal councilors expired in June 2012. As they say in Cameroon, the president alone understands the “intricacies and imperatives” of the country’s political and electoral calendar...

The Biya regime has defended the creation of this second legislative body, which many consider an extravagance, by arguing that it will be a major boost for Cameroon's democracy in terms of popular participation, strengthened checks on the executive branch, a less hazy separation of powers, and increased political transparency. From all indications, however, this is mere wishful thinking, beginning with the method of selecting senators which makes a complete mockery of the democratic principle of popular participation.

A Democratic Anachronism (of Patricians and Plebeians)

Even though the Senate has been in the books for close to two decades, many Cameroonians were still stunned to learn that they would not be voting in the senatorial elections because, unlike presidential or municipal elections, these elections would be through an arcane and archaic “indirect universal suffrage” system where only a select few are eligible to vote. According to Chapter 1, Section 3 of Law No 2006/005 of 14 July 2006 to lay down conditions governing the election of Senators:

(1) Each region shall be represented in the Senate by 10 (ten) senators 7 (seven) of whom shall be elected by indirect universal suffrage on a regional basis and 3 (three) appointed by decree of the President of the Republic.

Chapter IV, Section 11 clarifies that:

(1) Senators shall be elected in each region by an electoral college comprising regional and municipal councillors.

In 2008, Parliament amended this clause, stipulating that “the electoral college for Senators will be exclusively municipal councillors in case senatorial elections are organised before regional council elections”. Since regional council elections have not yet taken place, the electoral college will, therefore, consist uniquely of the 10,636 municipal councilors, 9,032 of whom are from the ruling CPDM and the remainder from the SDF( 801), UNDP (364), CDU (244), MDR (128), UPC (26), and ADD (6). So much then for the much vaunted “popular participation”…

On another note, a second presidential decree sets the participation bonus for each member of the electoral college at 50,000 Francs CFA per person.

Stacking the Deck in Favor of the Ruling Party

The political implications of the indirect universal suffrage is immediately obvious to anyone familiar with the Cameroonian political system and the context in which the Senate was established back in 1996. At that time, Cameroon had held its first multiparty parliamentary elections a few years earlier during which the opposition had swept the majority of seats, and ruling CPDM forced to enter into a coalition with the MDR and UPC in order to govern. These elections had been followed by 1996 municipal elections during which the opposition had, against all odds, swept what was then described as “le Cameroun utile”, or the Cameroon that matters. The ruling CPDM therefore needed a second legislative body in which it would be assured permanent control, and which would have the power to amend or reject laws adopted by an opposition-controlled national assembly.

It was in this context that CPDM constitutionalists came up with a 100-member senate in which the president (in violation of the sacrosanct principle of the separation of powers) would unilaterally appoint 30 Senators of his choice, the assumption being that since the president/CPDM already had a stranglehold on the “Grand South” (Center, South and Eastern provinces/regions) and its 21 seats, the regime would have an automatic 51 senate majority even before the first vote was cast.
 
This was the thinking in 1996 at a time when Cameroon still had what could pass for a reasonably credible or powerful opposition. Today, the political environment is completely dominated by the ruling CPDM which currently controls 336 of the 360 municipal councils in the province and has 9,032 of the country’s 10,636 municipal councilors.

This political reality explains why the President insisted that senate elections take place before new municipal elections, even though the mandate of the current councilors expired in June 2012. On June 1, 2012, President Biya signed a decree extending the mandate of mayors and municipal councilors in Cameroon by one year with effect from the 31st of July 2012. Logic would have required that the electoral college for the 2013 Senate elections consist of new councilors elected in 2013 and not by councilors elected in 2007. Unfortunately, political expediency once again won the day.

Caricature of the US Legislative System

The Biya regime describes the indirect voting system as a catalyst for Cameroon’s democracy but it is an anachronism whose modern origins can be traced to Senate elections in the United States during the first 137 years of its existence. In that now abandoned system, the two Senators representing each state of the union were elected in a two-step process. First, voters in each state elected their state legislators by direct popular vote who in turn selected the state’s senators:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

The rationale for this system was rooted in the nature of America’s federal system of government which sought to give states a say in national affairs. As John W. Truslow III explains:

The framers’ legislative design was subtle, but ingenious: While a Member of the House would represent the interests of the people as citizens, a Senator would represent the very different interests of the people’s sovereign state governments. This structure embodied the original meaning of the term “separation of powers.” The legislature would domicile two distinct powers (the people and the states) to compete bill by bill for the direction and scope of the federal government. 

In spite of this rationale, the shortcomings of the indirect system soon became obvious with rampant influence peddling, bribery, corruption, institutional gridlock, etc. As University of Baltimore School of Law professor Garrett Epps recalls,

by 1890, special interests owned the state legislatures; whenever a senatorial election occurred, railroad barons, oilmen and monopolists descended on the state capitol and spread their cash like butter across the lawmakers' outstretched palms.

Spurred by what Epps describes as “an extraordinary grass-roots campaign, one of the most sustained and powerful in American history,” the US Congress enacted the 17th amendment in 1913. Its main objective being to guarantee that senators are elected by the people of each state in direct elections.

Today, the indirect universal suffrage is a distant memory, although in recent years, the Tea Party fringe of the Republican party has been calling for a repeal of the 17th Amendment on grounds that it stripped States of their rights.

The Senate is an Anomaly in an Over-centralized Unitary System

So what is the rationale for Cameroon’s indirect vote, when neither the country’s unitary system, in which the president wields the powers of a constitutional monarch, nor its legislative system, which is at the beck and call of the Executive branch, recognize or even accommodate specific rights for the periphery? As a reminder, in Cameroon,

[The President] is empowered to name and dismiss cabinet members, judges, generals, provincial governors, prefects, sub-prefects, and heads of Cameroon's parastatal (about 100 state-controlled) firms, obligate or disburse expenditures, approve or veto regulations, declare states of emergency, and appropriate and spend profits of parastatal firms. 

In addition, unlike in the US where congressman defends the interests of his local constituency in the House of Representative, the Cameroonian member of the National Assembly is expressly forbidden to represent the interest of any local constituency – not even the one that elected him. According to the constitution, the Cameroonian MP “represents the entire Nation” (Article15 (2) of the 1996 constitution).

Similarly, unlike his US counterpart who represents (the people of) his/her state, the Cameroonian senator represents “regional and local authorities” rather than the people of his region (Article 16 (2) of the constitution). Thus, there is no justifiable rationale, other than political expediency, to use the undemocratic indirect universal suffrage in 21st century Cameroon on the spurious claim that it will promote the interests of regions.

No Power of Restraint over the Executive Branch

The new Senate has no power to impeach the president, to approve or reject presidential appointees to the executive and judicial branch, no specific oversight over international treaties signed by the executive, and no power to conduct investigations of malfeasance in the executive branch. Thus, unlike its US or even Nigerian counterpart, the Cameroonian Senate has no power of restraint over the executive branch. In short, the Senate has no specific duties other than those listed in Article 26 of the constitution which are generally assigned to the legislative branch and which are currently being handled by the National Assembly.

The Senate’s unique responsibility belongs to the Senate President in the event of a vacancy at the helm of the state. Article 6(4)(a) of the constitution stipulates that:

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 these powers, they shall be exercised by his Vice, following the order of precedence.

The ultimate result is an unnecessary duplication of tasks between the National Assembly, elected by popular vote, and the Senate elected by indirect suffrage, which will nonetheless have the power, per article 30 of the constitution, to amend or reject bills adopted by National Assembly – a potential source of gridlock and paralysis in the event that the National Assembly is controlled by the opposition…

In the end, there is really no valid rationale for a Senate in Cameroon even though its supporters argue that it will improve parliamentary procedure and the quality of legislative decisions through a division of labor between both houses. Even if that were the case, the Senate will remain a tool for reinforcing executive control over the legislative branch and reducing the margin of maneuver of an opposition-controlled National Assembly if it ever came to that.

Until an improbable reform of its structure and functioning, the Senate will remain—in popular imagery and in reality—a gilded retirement chamber for former high ranking government officials, and a prebend to traditional chiefs, business magnates and other individuals who have sworn an oath of fealty to the Biya regime. In the process, municipal elections, which were once quite low on the political totem pole, will be transformed into a high stakes zero-sum game with the political elite bent on using every trick in the book to stack the deck their favor with an eye on the next Senate elections.

Comments

[Aloga]

A Comment from Camnet:

It should be understandable why the President is selecting or appointing 30% to the new Senate from across the land. These individuals will have to be strong stakeholders--people with property, wealth, and powerful interests in their respective communities. Yes, these would constitute the bastion of continuity and rational, not radical, transformation of the political system over time.

The Cameroon government is based on a strong executive--The Presidency. This strong executive model is derived from the French system and influence, and from the historical experience of French colonialism and the violence that attended the UPC struggle for independence in French Cameroun. Consequently, the concept of checks and balance does not necessary mean "equality" or "absolute balance". The balance is uneven because it is skewed to the favor of stability and durability. Cameroon has not arived at the point where election of Senators can be open to a largely politically illiterate populace. The people must be guided by a philosopher-king who has devoted his entire life to the task of building a sustainable democracy in Cameroon. The work of President Biya should be viwed from a "long perspective". The collective wisdom of 30 Senators appointed by the President will aid the progress toward sustainable democracy.

Granted, the adopted approach appears imperfect to critics and rightfully so. But nothing in politics is ever perfect. We can only hope that successive generations will refine and make more perfect the perfectible imperfections of their predecessors.

Emmanuel Konde

[Wanzi Nona]

A response to Konde from Prof. Tatah Mentan:

Let me attempt to summarize what Dr.Konde is saying in current language of political discourse in this era of globalization. Indeed, he subscribes to what is called nowadays as market-driven democracy. With hindsight, my former teacher at ESIJY, Professor Samir Amin, calls it “low-intensity democracy”. This brand of democracy is described as characterized by limited accountable government, relatively unfree and unfair competitive elections, partially curtailed substantial civil and political rights, and compromised associational autonomy. In fact, this variant of democracy alienates the idea of democracy from its social connotation as popular power, in favor of ‘formal’ and procedural criteria that safeguards the dominance of the elites and of the market. I understood this lesson during my second year in Yaounde University. To imagine a Professor peddling such dangerously anti-democratic notion is tantamount to auctioning his intellectual vacuity.
To quote economist John Maynard Keynes “Sooner or later, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.” I have never accused President Paul Biya of being a “Philosopher-King”. I have known him to be a lackey, a running-dog of French neocolonialism in LRC. I simply wish Dr.Konde and his mentor Paul Biya to go ahead with their “sustainable democracy” ‘which does not necessary mean "equality"’ since ‘Cameroon has not arived at the point where election of Senators can be open to a largely politically illiterate populace’. Yet, all elections in Cameroon are "open to a largely politically illiterate populace". The Um Nyobes, Ernest Ouandies, Moumies, etc. should groan in their tombs on reading Dr.Konde’s traitorous epistle to St.Paul Biya in defense of political gangsterism in a secret police "gate-keeper" state.
Tatah Mentan

[ftroit]

Did Dr. Konde just insult Cameroonians as being illiterate and uneducated?

[Peter Vakunta, Ph.D]

It is a tragegy of sorts to watch intellectuals or those who purport to fall into this mold sink into unimaginable depths of debasement for pecuniary gains. The role of the intellectual in enlightening the rank and file and setting records straight for posterity is crucial. In doing so, the genuine intellectual strives to distinguish himself/herself from "okrika" or "kokobioko" intellectual.

Celebrated humanist, teacher, and scholar, Edward W. Said in his seminal book, REPRESENTATIONS OF THE INTELLECTUAL(Pantheon Books,1994)examines the ever-changing role of the intellectual today.

In six stunning essays delivered on the BBC as the prestigious Reith Lectures,Said addresses the ways in which the intellectual can best serve society in the light of a heavily compromised media and of special interest groups who are protected at the cost of larger community concerns.Said suggests a recasting of the intellectual's vision to resist the lures of power, money, and specialization. He concludes that it is the role of the intellectualto be the voice of integrity and courage, able to speak out against those in power.

[tekum emmanuel]

Mr biya is a vert big obstacle to democracy in cameroon and in africa in general.this man has rigged past election in cameroon with the complicity og the forces of law,and even the clergy.rendering young cameroonians poor and disgruntile.

[ANGLOPHONE]

The senate is another democratic farce, that is destined to further preserve the interests of dictator Biya and his chronies.

[ANGLOPHONE]

"cronies"

[cadmun]

The battle for hearts and minds in Cameroon and the diaspora is so much reflected in the War of verbs and words. The above essay, "Cameroon’s New Senate: An (Anti)Democratic Anachronism," as well as the following comments by Wanzi Nona, Peter Vakunta, Ph.D, tekum emmanuel & ANGLOPHONE,are best described as, 'incendiary rhetoric; very eloquent & well articulated, YET no factual fluency.'

"Granted, the adopted approach appears imperfect to critics and rightfully so. But nothing in politics is ever perfect. We can only hope that successive generations will refine and make more perfect the perfectible imperfections of their predecessors." Emmanuel Konde. This is positive and progressive thinking shared by Aloga

[E.K.Candida]

Emmanuel Konde,
Your right-up, just confirmed the popular say that '' most Africans are educated on paper, most Africans lack the vision to relate paper achievements to reality''. Dr Emmanuel,History is not created by kings or Ph.D holders.The world revolves around rational thinking,hands-on experience. You will agree with me that, Cameroon as a country finds herself in this Economic quagmire today because, the '' big book'' people like you have failed totally to steer the wheels in the right direction.Before, you became a Dr, the founding fathers of Cameroon were not schooled like you, but you will agree with me that, they used common sense and moved Cameroon positively in the economic coordinate. This economic prosperity is what every country or nation needs. The likes of Bill gates, Steve jobs, Warren buffet are not Ph.D holders, but they have made impacts to the world's economy.Africa's under-development and poverty has been largely caused by those who load themselves with certificates. It will be of great help, if Africans or Cameroonians start measuring their success based on performance, reality, applications,.
As at now, Cameroonians do not need Democracy, but a proper and functioning economy. An economy where people are not perturbed in their careers by some administrative buffoons.our children , wives are happy when they have balance diet and ,live in comfortable homes, with constant clean water flow, constant electricity supply, drive their cars on good roads, have good hospitals, have proper schools etc. You do not talk big book when you are hungry. Cut the crab with Ph.D and let's focus on building Cameroon's economy and create enabling and sustainable environment for all Cameroonians today, tomorrow and centuries to come.

E.K.Candida

[mitti tanui]

too much spices spoils the soup too much book will spoil Cameroon i believe in what i do because i know its value in my economy. i do it diligently and do not discriminate i serve people and do not wait for them to say thank you. i encourage local arts by purchasing their original work. i do community work around thus i use the gathering to sensitize local people about the ills of vandalism and the important to preserve life. i go on my knees and thank God for my country i make constructive critics not insults i do not save my money in foreign banks and do foreign investments i need to employ Cameroonians. i participate in my country politics i vote to express my opinion and if you ask me i consume local beer and if every body like what i do i will want us to stand up tall and call ourselves Cameroonians and stop fighting and spitting out our knowledge on papers. do you own part and help your own way then you can complain with nothing you do make you a lazy mind which is the devils workshop.I AM A CAMEROONIAN. by M.S.Tanui

[Aaron Ngwe]

M.S. Tanui, must this be an "either/or" discussion? I do ALL that you've mentioned above and ALSO point out the faults of my community, my church, my traditional rulers, my government, etc. That is what it means to be a CITIZEN and to "participate in my country politics." If the main article or the ensuing comments are wrong, then point out where the error is, but if you can't do this simple task, then your commentary is out of topic. We come here to learn from each other to read and share opinions and ideas - the very foundation of any citizen-oriented and participatory society; the kind of society we want in Cameroon where people are not punished for their ideas and are not branded "unpatriotic" because they dared to point out the shortcomings of their leaders and gvt. So Mr. Tanui, what exactly is your opinion - good or bad - about the Senate and the upcoming Senate elections? That is what is at issue here, and not what you do with your life on your spare time

[PETNYIN PAMELA]

To my mind,the cameroonian legal sytem stands a risk of sinking deeper than it seems to be untill Africa is AFRICAN.I also think that the upcomiming senatorial elections will evidently stand head and sholder tall as a detractor to the oposition firstly because it is prima faci based on apoinments and equaly in that they may get contented and forget their role as advocates of the shadow carbinate.As concerns the state of things nothing more than prayers will safe our economy given that the white man has a strong greep over all our resources.GOD HELP MY COUNTRY.

[TAS]

Weep not child.

[mbwange]

when and if he should loose his vision,or be frustrated in his super imposition of it upon the people,the form corrupts and madness ensue.the vision lost he may only remain with the power of his office against the frustration and implacability of the realities.the followership may sense this and faulter.this is a message to the sit tight African leaders.its time for the oppressed Africans to wake up and bring about a sustainable transformation in the political arena. Including Cameroonians.

[Desmond Adamu]

Excellent blog. These conversations are necessary. We must not despair in light of a seemingly repressive socio-political atmosphere. I can understand the sentiments of one of the comments which says that there is a preponderance of "big talk" over positive action but that has too often lead to less conversation. I would argue that that might be a dangerous path to take. When our ideas and ideals are not constantly kept in mind for all (especially our children) to see, when the time comes for us to make a difference (and that time WILL come), those available to act will not be as versed in what it is that the people want as they ought to be. Let's not let history repeat itself. Keep the conversation going and don't be shamed out of having an opinion. Strong or not.

[USDP Cameroon]

United Socialist Democartic Party (USDP) runned by a young cameroonian in the person of Prince Michael Ngwese Ekosso is providing the platform for change in Cameroon. In spite the various tricks by the barons to keep power around the ambits of their control in Cameroon, USDP and its leader has shown that Cameroon and cameroonians can still brace up themselves for positive change!