This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Cameroon |
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Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 18 May 1973, the first since the promulgation of the country's new constitution approved in a referendum the previous year. The country was a one-party state at the time, with the Cameroonian National Union as the sole legal party. 2,600 candidates ran for a place on the CNU list, with 120 eventually winning a place on it, equal to the number seats available in the enlarged National Assembly, [1] winning all of them with a 98.4% turnout. [2]
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in 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. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Although Cameroon is not an ECOWAS member state, it geographically and historically is in West Africa with the Southern Cameroons which now form her Northwest and Southwest Regions having a strong West African history. The country is sometimes identified as West African and other times as Central African due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West and Central Africa.
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of state in which one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. Sometimes the term de facto one-party state is used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike the one-party state, allows democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning the elections.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cameroonian National Union | 3,293,428 | 100 | 120 | +70 |
Invalid/blank votes | 1,577 | – | – | – |
Total | 3,295,005 | 100 | 120 | +70 |
Registered voters/turnout | 3,348,989 | 98.4 | – | – |
Source: Nohlen et al. |
The Cameroon People's Democratic Movement is the ruling political party in Cameroon. Previously known as the Cameroonian National Union, which had dominated Cameroon politics since independence in 1960, it was renamed in 1985. The National President of the CPDM is Paul Biya, the President of Cameroon, while the Secretary-General of the RDPC's Central Committee is Jean Nkuete.
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Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 1 March 1992. They were first multi-party elections for the National Assembly since 1964, although they were boycotted by the Social Democratic Front and the Cameroon Democratic Union. The result was a victory for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, which won 88 of the 180 seats. Voter turnout was 60.7%.
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