By DOH JAMES SONKEY
The eight candidates who ran for president in Cameroon have been urged to peacefully accept the verdict of the October 7 polls when it will be rendered by the Constitutional Council. The fair play call requesting losers to immediately call and congratulate the winner was made last October 10, 2018 at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel during a press conference granted by the International Civil Society Mission for Peace, Democracy and Good Governance in Africa.
The body’s 47 observers did cover the election in 537 polling stations in the Littoral, Centre and Far North regions.
The mission that was coordinated by Ouangbey Rock Aurelien who is a member of Esperance Afrique NGO and assisted by Oyeoussi Charles Balogoun, an electoral expert and President of Esperance Afrique advised that it would not be good for Cameroon to experience post election violence especially as it is already facing security challenges in three regions, North West, South West and Far North.
Explaining that they were invited by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and the Ministry of External Relations, the international peace mission observers declared that the polls were credible, transparent and free as it respected international principles on the organization of elections.
Admitting that the polls took place within a context of violence in the North West, South West and Far North regions, they concluded that the holding of the presidential election nonetheless contributed to the consolidation of the democratic process in Cameroon.
They recommended that the government should prepare future elections on time by first of all restoring security in the North West and South West regions, settle disagreement so that Cameroon’s development should not be compromised by instability and to take measures to boost massive participation of citizens in elections.
While urging ELECAM to take advantage of all recommendations from national and international observers in order to perfect the electoral process in Cameroon, the mission tasked civil society organizations in the country to stay off politics.