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| Cameroonian President seeks 28years in power |
5/15/2007 |
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Paul Biya, the president of Cameroonian republic, one of Africa’s longest serving dictators, who has held tight to power for about a quarter of a century, has set the stage for yet another attempt to elongate his stay in office by another seven years.If he succeeds, that would bring to 28years the total number years he would be ruling his country.
Come July 22 when Cameroon will hold parliamentary elections, according to government recent announcement, Mr. Biya, under the auspices of Cameroon Peoples Democratic Party (CPDM) would be contesting for re-election, an exercise described by political onlookers as fait accompli, apparently going by precedence.
Previous elections in Cameroon have been marred by irregularities and electoral malpractices which have now led to voters’ apathy because the voters are now resigned to the fact that no matter what they did, Biya always got his way. Only 4.7 million people - around half of those entitled to vote - have registered for the upcoming polls, according to provisional lists published in April this year.
Fearing a low turnout, the government has sought the help of several western missions in the country, some of whose diplomats have campaigned in the field to ensure mass registration. But their efforts is not paying enough dividend because the man on the street justified his reluctance to the fact that the winner of the election was predetermined.
Biya was re-elected in 2004 for a further seven-year term, winning more than 70 percent of the votes cast in a poll criticized by human rights groups, independent and foreign observers. However, following strong pressure from the opposition, civil society and diplomatic missions in the country, the government last December created an independent electoral body called ELECAM, to organise, manage and supervise future elections. But what made this sham body hilarious is that it could only go into operation in 18 months time, making its take off too late to oversee the July 2007 elections.
In the 2002 vote, the CPDM won an overwhelming majority of 149 out of the 180 seats in the National Assembly. The main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) led by John Fru Ndi, garnered only 22 seats. The opposition are faced with the dilemma of whether to participate in the elections or not to do so. Their predicament is that, Biya came out the winner whether they participated or not.
Biya, who has been in power since 1982; and has been winning every election despite widespread fraud and electoral malpractices witnessed and decried by national and international observers.
However, it is been reasoned that opposition parties are not giving Biya enough challenge ; a fact which is responsible for the latter constant smooth sail to victory.
In a related development, Barrister Bernard Acho Muna, speaking at a press conference following the National Executive Bureau meeting of the Alliance of Progressive Forces (APF) party at its headquarters in Tsinga, Yaoundé, recently proposed what he termed “Minimum conditions for free and fair elections to take place in Cameroon”. According to him, "a regular census whose results is published; an honest, transparent registration of voters; a system of declaration of candidates that does not allow for discrimination between the citizens of the nation; voting conditions that do not allow for cheating and fraud [and] a vote-counting system that is open, transparent and easily understood by any citizen," these measures he said could guarantee free and fair elections.
According to him, 17 years down the road since the re-introduction of multiparty politics, the Biya regime has deliberately and consistently failed to put in place a system to guarantee free and fair elections. He queried whether it is really impossible for the CPDM led-government to organize free and fair elections in Cameroon. Ben Muna proposed that the registration of voters be made obligatory and the voters left with the choice of whether to vote come Election Day. He said this could improve the present reluctance of the people to register and boost the registration process.
He noted further that members of election managing bodies should be made up of reputable members of the civil society known in local parlance as SDOs and DOs should be kept out of the electoral process entirely. The Barrister said the judgments of these categories of people are "subjective because they believe that they have to please any incumbent government to be promoted." According to him, measures must be taken for Cameroonians living in the Diaspora as well to both register and vote.
Talking about political intolerance and violence in Cameroon, the AFP Chairman noted that it is not something to be proud about no matter who the perpetrators were. He revisited the violence of May 26, 2006, in the SDF that took away the life of Gregoire Diboulé leaving a widow and five children. Even though he laid the blame at the feet of the CPDM Government for failing, so far, to prosecute the perpetrators of the act, it is believed that he is one of those who should be prosecuted for trying to steal the SDF party. His disclosure that APF has undertaken to continue to sustain morally and materially the widow of late Diboulé and the five children not good enough.
In a question and answer session, Muna repeatedly told journalists that the SDF party no longer exists for he led the party into a fusion to form a simple political party, the APF, begging the question, who he was really representing. Hopefully someday, the whole truth about his political agenda would come to light. But he was open enough to acknowledge that opposition parties shared the blame for the ugly political situation in the country.
"We have further recognized and accepted in the interest of the Cameroon people and the Cameroon nation the necessity to put in place a dynamic movement that will re-awaken the hopes and aspirations of the people of Cameroon," he said.
His observed that the Cameroonian political landscape for 17years has been rampant of tribalism, injustice, corruption, nepotism, embezzlement of public funds, waste of resources, and gangsterism . But the question is; what part has he played in all of that? Blaming the CPDM Government, which he said is completely lacking in all human conscience, the APF Chairman, deplored the fact that Cameroon has been emptied of all its moral, social and spiritual values.
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