By Moma Sandrine
The spokesman of the presidential majority and chairman of the UDP Party, El-Hadj Lawan Bako has applauded Elections Cameroon, ELECAM for reducing the number of presidential aspirants to nine. He was speaking in an exclusive interview with The SUN’s Moma Sandrine.
According to him, ELECAM has done a good job by reducing the number of candidates for the presidential race. “I think ELECAM has done a good job. It is made up of credible Cameroonians with international and national reputation. They have created a level ground for political parties to carry out their campaigns and contest freely.“
He added that those selected were drawn from different spheres showing the objectivity in the screening of candidates. “Cameroon’s democracy is advancing progressively…the candidates were chosen from all walks of life.“
Lawan Bako furthered by calling on ELECAM to ensure that money meant for the presidential elections be managed by them and not handed to the Ministry of Territorial Administration. According to him, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji Paul had earlier mismanaged money meant for senatorial elections and he feared that a similar situation will prevail should campaign money be handed to him.
“I think the presidential aspirants might face a problem of getting campaign money because recently, 200 million that was provided by the law for campaigns was not paid out to political parties. Till date, the UDP has not received its own share of the campaign money. Atanga Nji Paul might do the same thing to political parties vying for the presidential seat. I think the state should ensure that money for campaigns pass through ELECAM. They should take up the responsibility to organize elections and pay campaign money and not hand it to the Ministry of Territorial Administration.”
He concluded by calling on the Head of State to check the activities of some of his ministers while hoping that the upcoming elections go on smoothly.
The list of the nine candidates for the October 7 presidential elections was published on Tuesday, August 7 by the chairman of the electoral board of Elections Cameroon, Enow Abrams Egbe.