Why are deceased elected officials not replaced in Cameroon?
Ever since the last parliamentary and municipal elections in 2013, the so-called Senate and the National Assembly have already lost several of their members. This begs the question “Why are deceased elected officials not replaced?”
On the 22nd of September this year, the House of Senate lost Senator Delphine Medjo who died at the age of 75. Since her death, the South Region has no Senator. Delphine Medjo was also a member of the ruling CPDM Political Bureau. Even before the disappearance of the late Delphine Medjo, the National Assembly recorded that of the Honorable Elias Gondji, an MP of the ruling party who died on May the 30th of an undisclosed illness.
Apart from these two recent cases, there have been other deaths since the municipal and parliamentary elections of 2013. We are stating that of Oussouaffa Daoua, a Senator from the Benoué district who also moonlighted as Section President of CPDM Benoué Centre. There is also Senator Stephen Jikong Yirima who died on the 15th of November 2014 at the Yaoundé General Hospital.
The list is long and includes Fon Njifua Fontem, a CPDM Senator from Lebialem Division in the South West Region who died in 2014 and that of Senator Francis Nkwain who passed away on October the 19th, 2014. The Biya regime has been maintaining a kind of silence of the lamb on the issue of replacing these elected officials.
The non-organization of by-elections by the executive branch of government has been blamed on the difficulties related to the economic situation in the country. It is not true. President Biya and his gang are enjoying the prevailing situation that usually generates some kind of political thug-of-war in the various constituencies.
Since the creation of the Upper Banyang Sub Division in Manyu, the political elites have had to manage crisis erupting from sharing one parliamentary seat with the old Mamfe Central Sub Division. Every newly created Sub Division in the Centre and South regions has its own parliamentarian. But Mamfe Central and Upper Banyang continue to be represented by one MP till date.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
