Elections in Cameroon:

What perspectives for 2018?

In principle, five elections are expected to hold in Cameroon in 2018. Political enthusiasts look at this special election year with mixed feelings. In the following analysis, our political correspondent argues that success in 2018 depends on what preparations will be done in the country in this direction before 2017 runs out.

 By our political analyst

Since the return of political pluralism in Cameroon close to 30 years ago, public speech in the country has been replete with words and expressions such as ‘democracy’, ‘governance’, citizen’, electoral lists’, ‘consensual electoral code’, and especially ‘alternation’. The reason for this is that Cameroonians being more and more citizen-oriented and tired of a deceptive democracy compared to what is observed in countries that are authentically democratic, seem to be waiting impatiently for the 2018 elections in order to be done with inertia, as they say. This, in the hope that the vote will not be hijacked this time around by a hegemonic party and occult groups. 678496194

                For this dream to come true, the 10 to 15 million potential voters have to register on the electoral lists and effectively go and vote, each with the intimate conviction that the vote cast in the ballot box will translate into the expected result. Such result would prevent the maintenance in power of leaders who despise them, sanction them through a blank vote and/or massive abstention or replace the current occupants of the seats of power with those from whom they can expect better governance.

The attainment of this result no doubt requires the prior responsibility of both the government and the opposition. That is why, knowing only too well that as you make your bed so shall you lie on it, it seems timely for us to draw the attention of men and women in politics to the fact that preparations for the 2018 elections must begin today.

Will all five elections hold?

                As a matter of principle, five elections are expected to take place in 2018: a presidential election in which Mr. Biya still seems to be candidate for the CPDM, senatorial, parliamentary and municipal elections, to which are added regional elections, i.e. if the Senate has to be in conformity with the constitution of the republic – that is to say, elected by municipal and regional councillors.

                Will things happen in this way? Nothing can be too sure. When we look at the sociopolitical, economic and security context of the country, we do not need to be religiously pessimistic to doubt the capacity of the government to meet the challenge of such a calendar at the organizational and financial levels as well as in the democratically established norms. The question is therefore not only if 2018 will be a year of alternation but also if all or some of the elections will effectively take place.

Sources at MINATD say that whereas the Constitution obliges the Head of State to respect the programme of holding the presidential and senatorial elections, the electoral law gives him the latitude to either anticipate or postpone the parliamentary and municipal elections. Rumours thus have it that only two elections will take place next year, that is, the presidential and senatorial elections, which Mr. Biya cannot anticipate or postpone without changing the Constitution anew. The postponement of the other elections would easily be justified by the particularly difficult security and economic contexts.

                How then could the President of the Republic go ahead such that the Senate is not elected again only by municipal councillors and himself without part of its electorate (regional councillors who are still non-existent)? It is indeed hard in the near future to envisage the election of regional councillors whose non-existence is tantamount to the strangulation of the decentralization process in Cameroon.

There is no doubt that the absence of an official justification for the non-election of the above-mentioned councillors for 21 years now looks like a systemic rebellion of the government against the Constitution, the electoral code, the law on decentralization and all politico-legal instruments which could make our country resemble a state of law. Simply put, the deliberate refusal by the powers that be to organize the election of municipal councillors reveals the country’s governance as lacking credibility.

2018: A year of hopes and risks

                Coming back to 2018, it should be stated that if Cameroonians talk so much about it, it is because the year promises more to be one of all hopes than one of all risks. Yes, there are hopes and risks. Hopes because from within the country there is a popular clamour for alternation of power, and risks because there is a stubborn resistance to change by the CPDM-led administration, which could lead to post-elections violence whose beginning is known but whose end can never be determined.

                It is therefore proper for us to call on all political actors in Cameroon to do just what is expected of each of them when the time is right. Through a participative and peaceful democratic process, they are expected to make our country one in which common goodwill prevails; one in which everybody’s rights are respected; one in which governance gives every individual the pride of their identity as citizen and the motivation of their patriotism.

                In consonance with the concept of democracy being “government of the people by the people and for the people”, leaders have to accept that in their political parties supporters are not behind them but rather around or beside them, i.e. with them, so that together they can conceive ideas and propagate them. Leaders must bear in mind that the people are not the subject of a government that came from nowhere, but rather its producer (or creator). That is why the government is at the service of the people and not otherwise.

                And if we subscribe to the principle that political parties compete for the expression of universal suffrage, then we have an obligation to:

•             constantly explain to citizens the stakes of their vote and their impact on the quality of governance;

•             present to them well ahead of elections (and not only during the 15 days of elections campaign) a political offer (society project and governance vision) which enable them to see the difference between the candidates;

•             sensitize and accompany them, as the case may be, on their registration on electoral lists and on the defence of their vote.

By leaving the people to slumber behind them, those who want to conquer power in Yaounde are more or less “apprentissorciers”, to borrow the term from Mr. Biya who himself borrowed it from his predecessor, AhmadouAhidjo.

                It would be most unfortunate if Mr. Biya, in 2018, continually pays a deaf ear to the cry of the voiceless through the collective voice of the opposition and the civil society for transparent elections to take place. We can be sure that such an action or inaction would negatively impact the electoral process.

The way forward

                Apparently, all these partners are crying foul, justifiably, in relation to their accumulated frustrations following irregularities, fraud and different kinds of abuse which have marred elections in Cameroon since 1992. To them, doing nothing in 2018 to change this state of affairs would be a threat to social peace. We share this fear and draw the attention of the powers that be to some primordial things that can be done for the 2018 elections in Cameroon to be just and peaceful.

                These are, amongst others, the reduction of the voting age to 18 years; the institution of a single ballot which prevents the corruption of voters through the re-buying of competitors’ votes; the total management of the elections by a neutral and independent ELECAM (the Canadian model, for instance); the institution of a two-round vote which is favourable to responsible citizenship and good strategic dialogue amongst political parties; making the vote totally biometric so that voters’ cards could be issued at the right time; making sure those who register correspond to those who vote; etc.

      Three things that the gov’t must do:

-                 Empower ELECAM financially: (a) to deploy teams and adequate equipment in all councils so as to ensure optimal registration of voters; (b) to bring together its board of directors who, according to the end of articles 64 and 68 of the electoral code, are responsible for the counting of the votes.

-              Prohibit the use of the human, material and financial resources of the state by the CPDM or any other political party in carrying out election campaigns or sensitization of political parties.

-              Carry out an equitable redistribution of electoral wards in order to correct the injustice which ensures that in the same country there is one parliamentarian for 40,000 inhabitants (South) while another represents more than 300,000 inhabitants (Littoral).

                All of which has to be done here and now through a revision of the electoral code such that there is the re-establishment of the validity of all the reports signed not only by ELECAM delegates by all the delegates of political parties present in the polling station. If President Biya wants to make Cameroon a state of law, then he must seek to make 2018 a success today.