The divorce between MP Jean Michel Nintcheu and the Social Democratic Front (SDF) of John Fru Ndi has been finalized. Jean Michel Nintcheu should continue to sit in the National Assembly.

The rules of procedure of the lower house of Parliament do not provide for the exclusion or resignation of a member of parliament from his political party. But before the case of Jean Michel Nintcheu, there were precedents like Ayah Paul Abine. In 2011, this lawyer had resigned from the CPDM after opposing the revision of the Constitution aimed at lifting the limit on the number of terms at the top of the state, but the elected representative of Manyu, in the South-West region, had continued to sit.

Some members of the G27+ platform of the SDF , who were last Saturday expelled from the party, have been firing missives at the National Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi. The members have described their dismissal as a miscarriage of Justice. The NEC decision stated that ” by seeking external legal redress to grievances that are internal in nature, by passing all the organs ans statutory dispositions of the party, such members are by this act, forfeiting their right to membership”

Following the NEC resolution, which has been raising controversy, the dismissed members have taken turns to vent their anger and indignation. The loudest voice , Jean Michel Nintcheu who recognized. he had taken note of dismissal. He issued a statement to the National Assembly demanding all deductions made from his salary for SDF to be stopped immidiately.

The real issue is to know if Jean Michel Nintcheu will continue to be considered by the institution as a deputy of the party that invested him. As the CPDM has an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly, the question did not arise in 2011. The answer to this question could have an impact on the configuration of the bureau of the National Assembly. Article 17 of the Rules of Procedure of the lower house of parliament stipulates that the bureau represents the political configuration of the National Assembly.

If Jean Michel Nintcheu is no longer considered as a member of the SDF, the number of elected members of this party would drop from five to four. This situation would make the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN) the third political force in the National Assembly after the CPDM (152 MPs) and the UNDP (National Union for Democracy and Progress, 7 MPs). The immediate consequence is that the SDF could lose the post of quaestor to Cabral Libii’s PCRN during the March session.

In any case, in his correspondence, Jean Michel Nintcheu asks the Secretary General of the National Assembly “to draw all the legal consequences relating to the constitution of the bureau of the august House for the session that opens in March.