Know your council: How councillors, mayors, and communities work together.

For many citizens, local government can feel like a complicated puzzle of laws, councils, and political acronyms that are far from the ordinary man. Yet, the decisions made at your local council affect your daily life from the maintenance of local roads to the supply of clean water and the registration of births, marriages, and deaths (Law No. 2004/018).

To understand how this system works, let us first look at the key actors: the Municipal Councillors, the Mayor, and the Deputy Mayors. This guide explains who they are, how they get their power, how many of them there are, and how they work together. We shall be using simple language and real-world examples to ease your understanding of how the local council works.

The main legal texts governing local council elections are:

• Law No. 2004/018 of 22 July 2004 laying down rules applicable to communes.
• Law No. 2019/024 of 24 December 2019 instituting the General Code of Decentralised Territorial Authorities (CTDs).  
• Law No. 2012/001 of 19 April 2012 relating to the Electoral Code (as amended), which sets out how municipal councillors are elected.

  1. Who is a Municipal Councillor?  

A municipal councillor is an elected local government official who represents a specific community or municipality on a local council. Think of a Municipal Councillor as the direct representative of your neighbourhood. They are ordinary citizens elected to sit on the Municipal Council (Law No. 2004/018). Their primary job is to:

• Voice the needs of the population. Vote on the council’s budget and development plans.
• Decide which projects should be prioritized. (like building a school, fixing a road, or improving on sanitation)
• Oversee the mayor’s management of council affairs, including reviewing annual administrative and financial accounts (Law No. 2019/024).

www.prc.cm

This implies that councillors do not run the council on a day-to-day basis, but they act like a board of directors watching over your community, while the mayor and council staff handle daily administration. Municipal councillors are elected for a five-year term, corresponding to the life of the council (Law No. 2012/001 relating to the Electoral Code)

  2. Who is a Mayor?  

The Mayor is the chief executive officer of the council. If we consider councillors as the board of directors, the mayor is the managing director of the municipality. The functions of the mayor include but are not limited to the following:

• Represents the municipality in all civil matters and before the courts.
• Manages council property, revenue, and services.
• Prepares and executes the budget approved by the council.
• Signs official documents (including birth, marriage, and death certificates).
• Recruits, supervises, and disciplines council staff (within the limits of the law).
• Ensures the implementation of council decisions and development programmes.

As would be explained below, the mayor is elected by the municipal councillors from among their own number, during the council’s first session after municipal elections. Just like the councillors, mayors serve a five-year term, unless removed earlier for legal reasons.

  3. How councillors are elected  

Unlike legislative elections where you vote for an individual candidate, municipal elections in Cameroon use a closed-list system. This means that political parties present a complete team (a list) of candidates. When voters go to vote, they choose a party list, not individual names.

As you may already know, the number of municipal councilors vary from one municipality to another. In essence, the number of councillors a council has depends entirely on the population of the municipality, based on the official census immediately preceding the municipal elections.The law fixes the number of municipal councillors as follows:

• Less than 50,000 inhabitants: 25 councillors
• 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants: 31 councillors
• 100,001 to 200,000 inhabitants: 35 councillors
• 200,001 to 300,000 inhabitants: 41 councillors
• More than 300,000 inhabitants: 61 councillors

Before each election, a presidential decree then formally fixes the exact number of councillors for each municipality, based on the most recent census.

Example: Let us imagine a municipality called Aghong town with 45,000 inhabitants. By law, Aghong town falls in the less than 50,000 bracket, so it is entitled to 25 council seats. Every political party contesting the election in Aghong town must therefore submit a closed list of exactly 25 candidates.

What happens on election day when different parties present different closed lists with 25 candidates each? Cameroon uses a mixed single-round ballot for municipal elections that combines a majority system and a proportional representation system to decide how councilor seats are shared. To break it down, there are two possible outcomes that can happen in the elections:

  Scenario A: The single-party clean sweep (absolute majority)  

This happens if one party list wins more than 50% of the total votes cast. So, let us assume that three parties compete in Aghong town municipal elections and the results are as follows.

•   Party X: 55%

•   Party Y: 30%

•   Party Z: 15%

The Outcome: Since Party X’s list got 50% of the votes, the law gives them all 25 seats in the council. Therefore, Parties Y and Z get zero seats, and Aghong town becomes a single-party council.

  Scenario B: The mixed council (when there is no absolute majority)  

This happens if no single party’s list gets more than 50% of the votes. Only lists that obtain at least 5% of valid votes are eligible for the proportional allocation of seats. So, if we have the results as follows:

•   Party X: 45%

•  Party Y: 35%

•  Party Z: 20%

Since nobody got 50%, the seats need to be shared. The law uses a two-step formula to share the 25 seats.

Step one: Majority bonus. The first-place party (Party X) is automatically given half the seats (rounded up when there is a fraction).

•   Half of 25 is 12.5 → Party X gets 13 seats.

Step two: Proportional sharing. The remaining 12 seats are shared among all parties based on their vote shares. After calculation, the result might be:

•  Party X: 2 more seats (total 15)

• Party Y: 6 seats

•  Party Z: 4 seats

In that case, the final outcome would be:

• Party X: 15 councillors

• Party Y: 6 councillors

• Party Z: 4 councillors

This system ensures that the leading party is rewarded, and at the same time, other parties can still gain representation when the vote is fragmented.

  4. How the mayor is elected  

In Cameroon, the population does not directly vote for a mayor. Instead, the mayor is elected indirectly by the newly chosen councillors during their very first session. This means that to be a mayor, a person must be an elected councillor first.

How would the mayor be chosen in the two scenarios above?

In the single-party council (Scenario A), All 25 councillors belong to Party X. The party leadership usually indicates its preferred candidate. The 25 councillors vote by secret ballot, and the chosen member from Party X easily becomes mayor.

In the mixed council (Scenario B), Party X has 15 seats, which is enough to win if they stay united. However, if Party X is divided, a rebel councillor from Party X could team up with Party Y (6 seats) and Party Z (4 seats). Together, they could form a coalition of 10 opposition votes plus a few defectors to cross the 13-vote winning threshold. This scenario would mean electing a mayor against the wishes of the main party’s leadership (very rare situation in Cameroon).

The election is by absolute majority in the first round and if no candidate achieves this, a second round is held, and the candidate with a relative majority wins. In case of a tie, the eldest candidate is declared elected.

  5. Who is a deputy mayor and how are they elected?  

A mayor does not govern alone. They are assisted by deputy mayors, who are also elected councillors. Deputy mayors have the following functions:

• Manage specific departments (such as finance, urban planning, health, or sanitation).
• Act on behalf of the mayor when the mayor is traveling or unavailable.
• May be delegated certain mayoral powers by written order.

  How are the number of deputy mayors is determined?  

The number of deputy mayors is fixed by law according to the size of the council (i.e., the number of councillors):

• Communes with 25 to 31 councillors: 2 deputy mayors
• Communes with 35 to 41 councillors: 4 deputy mayors
• Communes with 61 councillors: 6 deputy mayors

In addition, where part of a municipality is remote or difficult to access, the council may create a special deputy mayor for that area, elected from among councillors residing there. The special deputy mayor acts as civil status registrar and may enforce local policing rules in that zone.

Regarding their election, councillors vote for the deputy mayors immediately after electing the mayor in the first session and the rules are simple:  

Election is by secret ballot.

• Deputy mayors are elected using a proportional representation list system, following the principle of the highest average.
• The law requires that the distribution of deputy mayor positions reflects the political and sociological configuration of the council as much as possible. This is the rule that encourages inclusivity and gives minority parties or groups a chance to hold a deputy seat.

Deputy mayors also serve for the same term as the mayor and the council, unless they resign, are dismissed, or the council is dissolved.

  6. The Relationship Between the Mayor and Councillors  

The relationship between the mayor and councillors is a continuous system of checks and balances. The mayor needs the councillors because they cannot spend money or launch major projects without the councillors’ approval. Every year, the mayor must present the administrative and management accounts to the council to show exactly how every franc was spent. The councillors need the Mayor too because councillors cannot execute projects themselves, they only rely on the mayor’s office and council staff to carry out the physical work in the municipality. This interdependence is designed to prevent abuse of power on either side and to ensure that local development reflects both political direction (from the councillors) and administrative execution (by the mayor).

  7. Can a sitting mayor be removed from office during their mandate?  

Of course a mayor does not have a permanent blank cheque. They can be removed from office before their five-year term ends through two main legal situations.

The first situation is dismissal by the State. The Minister in charge of Decentralisation and Local Development, or the President of the Republic, can suspend or dismiss a mayor. This may happen when there is gross embezzlement of public funds, severe misconduct or violation of the law, and actions that threaten public order, state security, or national integrity. The council itself can also be suspended or dissolved in extreme cases, and a special delegation appointed to run the commune temporarily.

The second situation is the vote of no confidence. If the relationship between the mayor and the councillors completely breaks down, the councillors can oust the mayor when the mayor becomes dictatorial or refuses to call council sessions, implements projects or expenditures without council approval and persistent failure to execute council decisions.

In this situation councillors can request an extraordinary session (two-thirds of councillors can force the mayor to convene one). If a two-thirds (2/3) majority of the councillors vote “no confidence” against the mayor, the mayor is legally forced to step down, and a new mayoral election is held within the council.

Local democracy in Cameroon relies on organized teamwork in which the population chooses party lists in municipal elections, those parties fill the council chambers with councillors, whose number is fixed by law according to the municipality’s population. The councillors elect the mayor and deputy mayors from among their own ranks, with the number of deputies also fixed by law according to council size and together, they must balance power (the council decides and oversees then the mayor executes and manages). The state also exercises legal supervision to ensure that the council complies with laws and regulations, while the citizens benefit from services and can hold their leaders accountable through elections, petitions, and access to council documents.