On October 22nd, 2018 Cameroon’s Constitutional Council announced the result of the October 7th presidential election. The result shows that incumbent Paul Biya, 85, in power since 1982, won the elections with 71.28% under his Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) ticket. Chief opposition candidate Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) had 14.23%. All other candidates had less than 10%
Preceding the announcement of the result was a serious protest put up by the opposition in the Constitutional Council calling for the annulment of the election. Kamto [called] for the cancellation of the vote in seven of the country’s ten regions because of “multiple irregularities, significant cases of fraud and cases of violation of the law”.
On the side of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), its candidate Joshua Osih [wanted] the 2018 presidential election to be canceled entirely, still on suspicion of fraud. Cabral Libii [of the Universe party] followed suit with Joshua Osih and others who also demanded the total cancellation of the election of 7 October 2018.
[Public hearings at the Constitutional Court] started on October 16th, 2018 at the Yaounde Conference Center…on the eighteen complaints deposited by political parties…The eighteen petitions that were received at the Council were deposited by five petitioners within 72 hours after the close of the poll.
In the night on Thursday 18 October 2018, the Constitutional Council threw out Maurice Kamto’s petition describing it as unfounded despite days of hearings. The court [rejected] (Osih’s) request as not justified, presiding judge Clement Atangana ruled at around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) Friday shortly after the closure of hearings that started on Tuesday.
After the announcement of the result in favor of Paul Biya, who everything being equal, will be in power till 2025, a whopping 43 years in power, Maurice Kamto made an announcement in which he refused to accept the result.
According to Kamto, the constitutional court, the Electoral Commission, known as Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), and its overseeing body, the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MINAT) are biased and stacked against the opposition. Kamto further claimed that the evidence he had showed that the results announced were faulty and his victory had been stolen. He produced figures which showed that he won the election with 39% and Biya with 38%. He went ahead to say that he had accepted the honor of being President given him by the people and that he will make recourse to all legal avenues to ensure that the people’s choice is respected.
The design of Cameroon’s institutions shows a strong influence of the Executive, particularly the President of the Republic, over every other arm of Government. This was the first time the Constitutional Council announced results of elections in Cameroon, arguably installed for the occasion by Biya just months before the election.
Biya appointed all members of the Council and was of course himself running for the elections. Biya equally appointed all members of Elections Cameroon, as well as the Minister of Territorial Administration.
What Cameroon needs is deep institutional reforms. There is a need to put in place a political system that adequately and effectively separates the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. However, the chances for this to happen seem to be almost zero witness the regime tactics.The consistent refusal to ever review the unified form of the State to consider a return to a two-state federation as a solution to the ongoing conflict in the English-speaking part of the Cameroon (where a boycott of the election called by separatist leaders, was largely effective) demonstrates that the CPDM regime may never consider any form of constitutional reforms for more inclusive participation.
If Biya stands for elections in 2025 at the age of 92 (that is if he lives that long) with the status quo then it can be expected that he will still “win” the election even if he is in a wheelchair. Cameroon appears to have all the signs of a State ripe for future social conflagration unless appropriate measures are taken.
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