The judgement pronounced on the petitions will be final.

The centre of action in the 22 July legislative and council elections in Cameroon moves to Supreme Court, acting as the Constitutional Council, today. The Council will rule on 103 petitions tabled by candidates in the legislative elections. The President of the Supreme Court, Alexis Dipanda Mouelle is expected to preside over the special session after which it will be possible to know the exact number of Parliamentary seats the different political parties in the election will occupy for the next five years at the National Assembly.

The Constitutional Council will have as working documents the reports and appended documents forwarded by the National Commission for the Final Counting of Votes. The Commission members, headed by Clément Atangana, spent all of last week verifying the reports of the polling operations for the legislative election forwarded by the Divisional Supervisory Commissions.

The Constitutional Council will base the ruling on the prescription of the law governing the election of Members of Parliament. Section 47 (2) of the law of 16 December 1991 states clearly that, "Claims and challenges made by any candidate in the elections may be forwarded directly within a maximum prescribed period of 4 (four) days with effect from the closing date of the polls, to the Constitutional Council ".

The 103 petitions to be heard today conform with the law in the same section which makes it clear that, "the Constitutional Council may, if it deems necessary, hear any candidate or political party having participated in the election in the constituency concerned, or any person serving as a representative of the Government in the said election, and/or request, against receipt, supporting the evidence".

After the Constitutional Council rules on the claims and petitions, there will be no other chance for complaints as it is the highest jurisdiction to rule on matters relating to legislative elections. The court session today will logically lead to the proclamation of the legislative election results. Paragraph 3 of Section 47 of the above law specifies that, "The Constitutional Council shall adopt and proclaim the results of the elections within a maximum period of 20 (twenty) days with effect from the closing of the date of polling". Saturday, 11 August will make 20 days from the date of polling. This implies that the Supreme Court, acting as the Constitutional Council, will proclaim the official results either on or before Saturday, 11 August.