Chamber of Deputies

Cámara de los Diputados
Chambre des députés
Câmara dos Deputados
Type
Type
History
Founded1968
Leadership
President
Gaudencio Mohaba Mesu
since 12 July 2013
Structure
Seats100 members
Political groups
Government (100)
  •   Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (100)
Elections
Party-list proportional representation
Last election
20 November 2022
Meeting place
Malabo
Website
presidencia-ge.org/index.php/es/parlamento

The Chamber of Deputies (Spanish: Cámara de los Diputados; French: Chambre des députés; Portuguese: Câmara dos Deputados) is the lower house of the Parliament of Equatorial Guinea.

Although vested with considerable powers under the country's constitution, the Chamber has been dominated by the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea since its establishment, and there is virtually no opposition to executive decisions. Indeed, there have never been more than eight opposition legislators in the body.

Electoral system

The 100 members of the Chamber are elected by closed-list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies.[1] Members serve five-year terms.

Legislative history

The first legislative body was the unicameral General Assembly of Spanish Guinea (Spanish: Asamblea General) which was established in 1964, when Spanish Guinea was given autonomy.[2] It was replaced by Republican Assembly (Spanish: Asamblea de la Republica) in October 1968, which had 36 deputies elected for five-year terms. Additionally there was Republican Council - Senate (Spanish: Consejo de la Republica). Mba Ada was the first president of the Senate. Senate ceased to exist in 1973 when most of the senators fled the country or were murdered. By 1974, four or every five deputies of the earlier Republican Assembly had been murdered.[2]

The Republican Assembly was replaced by Popular National Assembly (Spanish: Asamblea Nacional Popular) in the Constitution of 1973. It had 60 deputies effectively selected by PUNT, the single party allowed to operate.[2] The legislature was dissolved in 1979.

A unicameral House of Representatives of the People (Spanish: Cámara de los Representantes del Pueblo) started to function in 1983. All members needed to swore loyalty to Obiang Nguema.[2]

In 2013, bicameralism was introduced with a Senate, and the House of Representatives of the People became the lower chamber as Chamber of Deputies.

Presidents of the Legislatures

Name Took office Left office Notes
Enrique Gori Molubela 1964 June 1965 Of General Assembly
Federico Ngomo June 1965 1968 Of General Assembly
Pastor Torao Sikara 16 October 1968 5 March 1969 Of National Assembly[3]
? 1969 August 1979 Of National Assembly
Legislature dissolved August 1979 1983
Francisco Bodien Ngalo 1983 November 1993 [4]
Felipe Ondo Obiang 21 November 1993 November 1994 [5][6]
Marcelino Nguema Onguene November 1994 1999 [7][8]
Salomón Nguema Owono 1999 18 June 2008
Ángel Serafín Seriche Dougan 18 June 2008 12 July 2013 [9]
Gaudencio Mohaba Mesu 12 July 2013 Incumbent [10]

Last elections

Party Votes % Seats +/–
Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea1000
Total1000
Source: Government of Equatorial Guinea Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Equatorial Guinea: Electoral System". IPU. n.d. Archived from the original on 19 March 2003.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Liniger-Goumaz, Max (2000). Historical dictionary of Equatorial Guinea (3rd ed.). Lanham (Md) London: Scarecrow press. ISBN 0-8108-3394-8.
  3. ↑ "A Guinea Ecuatorial" (PDF). 1968. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2015.
  4. ↑ "Francisco Bodien Ngalo, ex presidente del Parlamento de Guinea Ecuatorial". El País (in Spanish). 31 August 1995.
  5. ↑ "Equatorial Guinea Post-election human rights violations" (PDF). RefWorld. 1996. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 October 2017.
  6. ↑ Boneke, Juan Balboa; Esono, Fermín Nguema (1998). La transición de Guinea Ecuatorial: historia de un fracaso. Labrys 54 Ediciones. ISBN 9788488070098.
  7. ↑ Inter-parliamentary Union (1999). Parlements (in French).
  8. ↑ Inter-parliamentary Union (1999). Parlements (in French).
  9. ↑ "EQUATORIAL GUINEA Cámara de los Representantes del Pueblo (House of Peoples' Representatives)". IPU. 2008.
  10. ↑ "EQUATORIAL GUINEA Cámara de los Diputados (Chamber of Deputies)". IPU.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.