Constitution of Cameroon

In 1959, France agreed to grant independence to its Cameroun colony and set a date of 1 January 1960 as the date the new nation would come into being. The original Constitution was hurriedly drafted in 1959 to meet this deadline. The framers based many provisions, such as those outlining the powers of the president, on French models. The Constitution went into effect on 1 January 1960. Under it, Cameroon was defined as a unitary state with a one-house parliament, whose members were directly elected under universal suffrage.[4]

When British Southern Cameroons voted to join with French Cameroun 21 months later, delegates of both the Francophone and Anglophone portions of the country drafted a new Constitution at the Foumban Conference. Cameroon was made a federation, with East Cameroon and West Cameroon as its constituent states. The nation changed its name to the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Each state had its own prime minister and legislature; in East Cameroon, the legislature was unicameral, but in West Cameroon, the West Cameroon House of Chiefs was added.[5] The Constitution established a powerful federal government. The president presided over the union, served by his Vice President, cabinet, and a 50-member federal legislature.

The new document went into force on 1 October 1961. In 1969, the Constitution was amended to "prolong the life of the federal assembly" and to alter the selection process for the prime ministers of the states. For many years, the vice-president and the prime minister of West Cameroon were the same person, but in 1970, another amendment stipulated that the vice president could not hold any other government office.[5]

In 1972, a new Constitution was drafted. The document abolished the federal system and placed broad political power in the position of the president. The name of the country was changed to the United Republic of Cameroon. The previous legislative system was replaced by a unicameral National Assembly of 120 seats. The speaker of the National Assembly was established as the successor to the president. Nevertheless, the body held little real power.[4]

The new document was put to a popular referendum and approved on 20 May 1972. On 2 June 1972, President Ahmadou Ahidjo issued Decree 72-270, bringing the new document into law. On 9 May 1975, an amendment established the position of prime minister. On 29 June 1979, an amendment established the prime minister as the presidential successor. Under this law, Paul Biya replaced Ahmadou Ahidjo as president of Cameroon in November 1982.[3]

Biya and Ahidjo feuded behind the scenes over who would maintain political power in Cameroon. After winning the battle, Biya pushed through a new Constitution in 1984. The document primarily altered Articles 1, 5, and 7 of the previous Constitution. Article 1 renamed the country the Republic of Cameroon. Article 5 did away with the post of prime minister. Article 7 established the speaker of the National Assembly as the presidential successor, but it stipulated that any member of government could receive presidential powers in the event of an emergency. This successor or interim president was forbidden to make or change laws or the structure of government, to alter the Constitution, or to participate in the presidential election.[6]

With the liberalisation of Cameroonian politics in the 1990s, pressure groups from the Anglophone region demanded changes to Cameroon's government, preferring a return to the federal system of government. Paul Biya responded to the pressure, and on 18 January 1996, Law Number 96/06 enacted a new Constitution in Cameroon. The main changes came in Article 14, which established a Senate as the upper house of legislature, and Article 6, which extended the president's term limit to 7 years, and which placed the president of the Senate or vice-president as the president's successor. The Constitution replaces the provinces with semi-autonomous regions.[7]

On 10 April 2008, the National Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bill to amend Law 96/06 to change the Constitution to provide the president with immunity from prosecution for acts as president and to allow the chief executive to run for unlimited re-elections, along with a number of other changes. The vote took place after the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) representatives walked out of the assembly, and just one month after the 2008 Cameroonian anti-government protests, widespread violence that resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests of demonstrators protesting price rises and the proposed constitutional changes.[8][9]

There was limited public discussion of the changes leading up to the vote, with declarations by SDF leader John Fru Ndi reportedly prohibited in the national press and television by Alain Belibi Director of Information at the CRTV.[10] A song titled "50 years in power" by popular Cameroon singer Longuè Longuè was also reportedly banned by the Director of Programmes at the CRTV, Celestin Boten, and one journalist who had played the song, Billy Karson, was suspended and banned from air.[10] Another artist Lapiro De Mbanga, who had composed a song titled "Constitution constipée" ("Constipated Constitution") was arrested, and painter Joe La Conscience (Joe De Vinci Kameni), who had attempted to walk from Loum to Yaoundé to give a petition of 100 signatures to Cameroon President Paul Biya against the constitutional changes, was sentenced to six months in prison.[11] He and a colleague were arrested after initiating a hunger strike for having held a prohibited meeting, the meeting reportedly consisted of two individuals in his private residence at Tsinga.[12]

The proposed changes were published in the national newspaper, the Cameroon Tribune, on 7 April 2008, however the changes listed did not include proposed changes to Article 53 paragraphs 3 and 5, the paragraphs according immunity to the president.[13]

Five members of parliament voted against the bill. Opposition lawmakers[14] and at least one member of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), Paul Abine Ayah, member for Akwaya, criticised the bill as a setback for democracy and the country in general.[15] Following the vote it was revealed that Ayah, who had indicated he would vote against the bill, was absent during the vote, and despite having established no procuration, a supportive ballot was cast in his name by fellow CPDM MP Monjowa Lifaka Emilia, member for Fako West.[16] The Presidential Delegate Minister to the National Assembly, Gregoire Owona, reportedly indicated on the Cameroon state-owned national radio station, CRTV, that he had seen a procuration signed by Paul Abine Ayah, however Ayah insisted that he had not signed a procuration for the period of the constitutional law vote but only for the period 28 March 2008 to 31 March 2008.[17] On 17 April 2008 the daily newspaper Quotidien Mutations published what was purported to be a procuration signed by Abine Ayah for the period of the vote.[18][19] However, Abine Ayah continued to deny having signed a procuration and insisted the published document was a fake.[19]