The Constitutional Council has declared itself incompetent to rule on the complaint brought before it by Prof. Maurice Kamto’s MRC urging the body to compel the Director General of Elections to publish the national electoral list. It however, declared itself competent to note the “threats” that would be contained in the request, creating what observers say is a precedent.
The decision was made during the hearing on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at the Yaoundé Congress Palace. The session was presided over by Clément Atangana and the rapporteur, Prof. Adolphe Minkoa She, who refused to abstain from participating in the deliberations despite the bias raised against them the day before the hearing.
Reacting to the ruling, Me Hippolyte Meli, the head of the Sylvain Souop collective, regretted that “the council followed the rapporteur, who relied on principles that we deemed inapplicable to this case.” While the party counsel of Maurice Kamto rejects this thesis advanced by Prof. Minkoa She, the lawyer of the Director General of Elections, Me Joseph Atangana, is rather satisfied. “The Constitutional Council has only applied the law, and we are very proud of it. It declared itself incompetent, and it could not be otherwise,” explains Me Atangana.
The next episode of this pre-electoral dispute will take place at the Court of Appeal of the Centre to decide on the issue of compliance with Article 80 of the electoral code. Me Meli indicates that the MRC counsel will continue its request before the Court of Appeal of the Centre. The aim is to demand that sovereignty be respected and that the Director General of Elections, including the electoral council, comply with the electoral rights of each voter, which are constitutionally based. This argument does not meet the approval of Me Atangana, counsel for the Director General of Elections, who believes it is good that the plaintiff and the accused meet where the law has provided for them to discuss this issue. “It is not at the Constitutional Council, nor, explains Me Atangana, at the Tribunal de grande instance (TGI) of Mfoundi, which has been seized with the same question. It is either at the electoral council or at the Court of Appeal. We await them there.”
When asked why the Director General of Elections does not publish the national electoral file, Me Atangana responds unequivocally that he is not talking about the form, but rather the substance. To this end, he invites the opposing camp to go to the Court of Appeal to address this issue. This singular hearing lasted three hours. Starting at 11:26 am, it was interrupted and then adjourned at 2:30 pm. Before this temporary suspension, there was an hour of exchanges between the president of the Constitutional Council and the MRC counsel on the abstention of the president of this high court and the rapporteur, Prof. Adolphe Minkoa She. The reason: both are subject to criminal proceedings at the Tribunal de première instance of the administrative center (TPI) of Yaoundé. For C. Atangana, “the complaint with civil party constitution mentioned by the MRC regarding the desired recusal has not yet resulted in any implication likely to trigger the leave prescribed by Article 23 of the law of April 21, 2004.”
For his part, Christian NtimbaneBomo, another declared presidential candidate, said by ruling that “any dispute relating to the ELECTORAL LIST must first be brought before the Electoral Council, and in case of rejection, before the Court of Appeal”, Clement Atangana co had set a precedent. “The Constitutional Council has created law on the matter,” he said, hailing the audacity of Judge MinkoaShey “to finally clarify the legal regime of disputes relating to the electoral list, which until now had escaped any judicial examination..” Following is his declaration on the matter in its entirety:
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL DEFINITIVELY SETTLES THE PROCEDURAL ISSUE OF ELECTORAL LIST CONTROL: A GREAT ADVANCE, A HARD BLOW FOR THE YAOUNDÉ REGIME.
The decision rendered on January 21, 2025, by the Constitutional Council following the appeal filed by the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) has definitively filled a legal void intentionally created in the electoral code by the Yaoundé regime to prevent any judicial control over the electoral list, particularly the issue of its annual publication.
You may recall that on August 2, 2023, I had seized this same Constitutional Council to annul the current electoral list with a view to its complete overhaul.
The Constitutional Council, under the report of the late Professor Joseph OWONA, had considered that pre-electoral operations, namely disputes over the electoral list, were not admissible. According to him, its mission to control the regularity of the presidential election began only with the publication of candidacies by Elecam, thus excluding pre-electoral disputes over the electoral list from any judicial control.
You may also recall that our compatriot Abdhouramane Baba had also seized in 2023 the President of the High Court of Yaoundé to compel the Director General of Elecam to publish the national electoral list at the end of the annual registration operations on the electoral lists, in accordance with the law that gives this jurisdiction the authority to order any non-administrative authority to do what the law requires it to do.
This other jurisdiction had declared itself incompetent, without indicating which jurisdiction could hear this dispute.
We thus found ourselves in a kind of legal “no man’s land” regarding the control of the regularity of the electoral list. In other words, there was no jurisdiction that declared itself competent to hear disputes over the publication of the national electoral list.
Thanks to the appeal filed by the excellent lawyers of the MRC, the Constitutional Council, in its decisive motivations, has finally determined and specified, definitively, the procedure and the competent jurisdictions to hear any disputes over the electoral list, namely: in the first instance the Electoral Council, and in the last resort the Court of Appeal.
This is what was decided in the ruling rendered by the Constitutional Council on January 21, 2025:
“It follows that any dispute relating to the ELECTORAL LIST must first be brought before the Electoral Council, and in case of rejection, before the Court of Appeal.”
Those who try to relativize by citing Article 80 of the electoral code, which requires the Electoral Council and the Court of Appeal to be seized in case of rejection, are mistaken. This article only concerns omissions or errors in the registration of a citizen on the electoral list. This provision does not concern disputes over the electoral list as a whole, particularly those regarding its publication. The Constitutional Council has just made an extensive interpretation by including all disputes over the electoral list, particularly those regarding its publication.
This is a major advance.
Personally, I commend the insight of the members of this Constitutional Council who sat, and particularly the eminent law professor, Judge MINKOA SHE, and rapporteur in this procedure, for having had the audacity to finally clarify the legal regime of disputes relating to the electoral list, which until now had escaped any judicial examination.
Jurists will say that the Constitutional Council has created law on the matter.
Certainly, this decision seriously worries the Yaoundé regime, which would have preferred the procedural legal ambiguity to remain on disputes relating to the electoral list.
But from now on, everything is clear: after the appeal to the Electoral Council, it is the Court of Appeal.
None of the aforementioned jurisdictions could evade, by invoking any incompetence, to compel the Director General of Elecam to publish the electoral list.
Because the decisions of the Constitutional Council are binding on all, like laws. They are sources of law.
2025 will definitely not be 2018!
Christian NtimbaneBomo
Civil Society of Reconciliators
Declared candidate for the presidential election.
The reaction of Me Maître Hippolyte B.T MELI, representing the Sylvain SOUOP Collective:
“Despite accusations of bias, they refused to abstain from participating in the deliberations. We will continue our fight to defend the voting rights of all voters registered by ELECAM during this pre-electoral period, as they are the sole holders of sovereignty.”
