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 Cameroonportal |
A constitutional referendum was held in Cameroon on 21 February 1960. The new constitution would make the country a federal presidential republic with a unicameral federal parliament. [1] It was passed by 60% of voters with a 75.5% turnout.
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| For | 797,498 | 60.03 |
| Against | 531,075 | 39.97 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 9,605 | – |
| Total | 1,338,178 | 100 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,771,969 | 75.5 |
| Source: African Elections Database | ||
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages.
At the crossroads of West Africa and Central Africa, the territory of what is now Cameroon has seen human habitation since some time in the Middle Paleolithic, likely no later than 130,000 years ago. The earliest discovered archaeological evidence of humans dates from around 30,000 years ago at Shum Laka. The Bamenda highlands in western Cameroon near the border with Nigeria are the most likely origin for the Bantu peoples, whose language and culture came to dominate most of central and southern Africa between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE.
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the Southern States seceding from the Union - which is one of the causes for the American Civil War, the former Soviet republics leaving the Soviet Union after its dissolution, Texas leaving Mexico during the Texas Revolution, Biafra leaving Nigeria and returning after losing the Nigerian Civil War, and Ireland leaving the United Kingdom. Threats of secession can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals. It is, therefore, a process, which commences once a group proclaims the act of secession. A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the creation of a new state or entity independent from the group or territory it seceded from.
British Cameroon or the British Cameroons was a British mandate territory in British West Africa, formed of the Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Today, the Northern Cameroons forms parts of the Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states of Nigeria, while the Southern Cameroons forms part of the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has served as the president of Cameroon since 6 November 1982. He is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa, the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world.
Ambazonia, officially the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, also referred to as Amba Land, is an unrecognised breakaway state in West Africa which claims the Northwest Region and Southwest Region of Cameroon, though it currently controls almost none of the claimed territory. No country has formally recognized Ambazonia's independence, and it is currently the site of an armed conflict between Ambazonian separatist guerrillas and the Cameroonian military known as the Anglophone Crisis. Ambazonia is located in the west of Cameroon and southeast of Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea.
Cameroon elects, on a national level, a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a seven-year term by the people; a two-term limit on the office was removed through a parliamentary vote in April 2008. The National Assembly has 180 members, elected for a five-year term in 49 single and multi-seat constituencies. Cameroon also has a Senate, with 100 elected officials, each serving 5 years. 70 of these are elected by a regional council, while 30 are elected directly from the president.
Simon Achidi Achu was a Cameroonian politician who served as the prime minister of Cameroon from 1992 to 1996. Previously he was Minister of Justice from 1972 to 1975. A leading member of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), Achidi Achu was appointed Chairman of the National Investment Corporation in 2003, and he was elected to the Senate of Cameroon in 2013.
The Southern Cameroons was the southern part of the British League of Nations mandate territory of the British Cameroons in West Africa. Since 1961, it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Region and Southwest Region. Since 1994, pressure groups in the territory claim there was no legal document in accordance to UNGA RES 1608(XV) paragraph 5, and are seeking to restore statehood and independence from the Republic. They renamed the British Southern Cameroons as Ambazonia.
The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) later changed to the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens, was a Nigerian nationalist political party from 1944 to 1966, during the period leading up to independence and immediately following independence.
The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) is a political organisation seeking the independence of the former anglophone Southern Cameroons from the predominantly francophone Republic of Cameroon. It is a non-violent organisation with the motto "The force of argument, not the argument of force." Because the SCNC advocates secession from Cameroon, it has been declared an illegal organisation by the government of Paul Biya. Security forces regularly interrupt SCNC meetings, arresting members and typically detaining them for several days before release.
The Constitution of Cameroon is the supreme law of the Republic of Cameroon. Adopted in 1972, it is Cameroon's third constitution. The document consists of a preamble and 13 Parts, each divided into Articles. The Constitution outlines the rights guaranteed to Cameroonian citizens, the symbols and official institutions of the country, the structure and functions of government, the procedure by which the Constitution may be amended, and the process by which the provisions of the Constitution are to be implemented.
A constitutional referendum was held in Cameroon on 20 May 1972. The new constitution would make the country a unitary state, as opposed to the previous federal system, as well as giving more powers to President Ahmadou Ahidjo. It was passed by 99.99% of voters with a 98.2% turnout.
Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 10 April 1960. They were the first elections held in accordance with the new constitution, approved in a referendum in February, which created a unicameral federal National Assembly. The result was a slim victory for the Cameroonian Union, forcing it to govern in coalition. However, the election was marred by severe irregularities. Voter turnout was 69.5%.
A United Nations referendum was held in British Cameroons on 11 February 1961 to determine whether the territory should join neighbouring Cameroon or Nigeria. This followed an earlier plebiscite in Northern Cameroon in 1959 which voted to postpone a decision. The option of independence was not on the ballot, having been opposed by Andrew Cohen, the UK representative to the UN Trusteeship Council, as well as African and anti-colonial delegations, notably by E. M. L. Endeley, who favoured integration with Nigeria, and John Ngu Foncha, who favoured (eventual) reunification with Francophone Cameroon.
Parliamentary elections were held in Nigeria on 12 December 1959. The result was a victory for the Northern People's Congress, which won 134 of the 312 seats in the House of Representatives, despite the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons and Action Group receiving more votes. It formed a coalition with five other parties and two independents, holding a total of 148 seats. Voter turnout was 79.5%.
French Cameroon or French Cameroons was a French mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.
The Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Ambazonian War of Independence or the Cameroonian Civil War, is an ongoing civil war in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem with profound root causes. Following the suppression of the 2016–17 Cameroonian protests, Ambazonian nationalists or separatists in the Anglophone territories of Northwest and Southwest Regions launched a guerrilla campaign against the Cameroon Armed Forces, and later unilaterally proclaimed independence. In November 2017, the government of Cameroon declared war on the separatists and sent its army into the Anglophone regions.
Uwe Kekeritz is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria from 2009 until 2021.
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