Cameroon’s President Paul Biya Accused of Intent to Rig Forthcoming Elections
Paul Biya - Accused of Intent to Rigging Elections
The opposition in Cameroon has accused President Paul Biya of intent to steal the forthcoming election in the country. They are saying that Biya has made moves to seize control of vote preparations from a specially created independent body. Elizabeth Tamanjong, head of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), said “Paul Biya doesn’t want change. He wants to die in power.” Biya, who is now 77, has been in power since 1982. Tamanjong said that the only way Biya can hold on to power is by ensuring that there cannot be free, fair and transparent elections.
Parliament in Cameroon passed a bill on Friday giving the government oversight of poll preparations through the Ministry of Territorial Administration. This responsibility was previously carried out by the independent electoral body, ELECAM. According to Ben Muna, head of the opposition Alliance of Progressive Forces, “This means that ELECAM is only a shadow organisation, no more an independent electoral authority.” The Cameroonian President is expected to sign the bill into law within two weeks. Once the bill is signed, the Ministry of Territorial Administration will have the authority to appoint representatives to various commissions overseeing the full range of electoral preparations.
The executive president of the Foundation for Human Rights and Development, Afany Ngeh, has said that the law is the worst law the country has ever had because it brings back the administration and members of the judiciary into the electoral process in full force. Multi-party politics was introduced by Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM in 1991 but despite this, Biya and the CPDM have won every election since then and a constitutional ammendment in 2008 removed presidential term limits. Paul Biya has been accused of being a dictator.
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Over the world It is known that Cameroonian’s government is a camouflage dictator that is posing as democratic. And the country is placed among the worst corrupted country in the world.
The president has ruled the country for 28 years and he is at the age of retirement. It is time for him to let someone else governs the country. It is time for changes, new input and new start. Cameroon needs to refresh.
In my opinion this is not the time for the signing of new bill.
Why then pretend to considere the votes of the citizens of Cameroon when their interest is put after the people in power? The government administration must not be in control of the electoral process. The election needs transparency.
The president should concorde that it is time for changes. One does not always get what one wants. Besides he rules for 28 years.
Cameroon started by practicing Democracy and then later changed it to Crazy-Demo. This nice
There has never been a democracy in Cameroon. Paul Biya permitted the multiparty system in Cameroon in 1990s due to international pressure. The present regime in cameroon is not different from the military junta in Burma, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, the Communist government in Russia, China, the Umar Bashir of Sudan, Mobarak of Egypt, etc. What is the definition of freedom? To me the best definition of freedom is where talk, act and live their lives in a country without fear of arrest, the future or uncertainty. But all the afore-mentioned are abscent in Cameroon.
Cameroon need the marshal plan for election and economic development that was implemented in Europe after the second world war.
The only plan to save Cameroon is for the People to rise as one man and demand Dictator Paul Biya to leave office this October.
And the dissolve ELECAM and put in place a real national council with a mandate to organise true and fair elections within 90 days.
There have always been free and fair elections in Cameroon. It is due to the incompetence of the opposition and their inability to convince Cameroonians to support them that they usually lose elections and as it is a normal reflex in Cameroon they hide behind false allegations of irregularities during elections.