It now seems obvious that the announcement of the October 7 presidential elections by the incumbent head of state, President Paul Biya, has not been received with the kind of enthusiasm which he might have expected. It has instead been greeted with mixed feelings that have provoked a lengthy and irritating debate. To those who had been following happenings in the country for the past two years, such a clash of opinions was expected, and it is simple to understand why things turned out to be so.
In the first place, it is widely known that the country is in a state of war which the incumbent head of state himself declared, against what has become commonly referred to as ‘’separatists’’ embodying the two Anglophone regions of the country. And what we in this Newspaper are certain about is that since the declaration of this war, there have been regrettable loss of lives on both sides of the conflict, that is the so-called ‘’Ambazonian Defense Forces’’ and the state’s regular security forces.
We strongly believe that under normal circumstances, where prudence ought to be allowed a chance in our thinking, the popular option of an inclusive dialogue, which has all along dominated the vision of a majority of our sympathisers towards the possibilities for a lasting solution ought to have been given serious consideration by the head of state as a matter of priority. The head of state instead opted for presidential elections as a matter of priority, thus seeming only to have put the cart before the horse. Looking at it carefully, this sounds more like a snare planted for the Cameroonian opposition to fall into, and which they have unwisely fallen into.
To justify this piece of analysis, by midnight on Thursday July 18, 2018, which was the deadline set by the Electoral Code for prospective candidates to submit their applications, the number of candidates had reached twenty-eight. The logical question to ask here and which we think many of those candidates of those political parties that have opted for the race cannot offer a convincing answer is: how much consideration have they given to those displaced persons, especially those still hiding in bushes, talkless of those now living as refugees in foreign land. We just cannot see any wisdom in opting for a race on a bumpy ground about which there have been endless agitations about allegations of fraud institutionalised by a bad electoral code. Today, in addition to these election malpractices, there is the additional factor of the effects of a senseless war against a people who have been constantly given the false impression that they are part of a one and indivisible country called Cameroon.
However, the broad picture before us, as far as the number of political parties that have opted for the race is concerned, is one in which the usual assembly of mushroom parties that have no real base, but simply gather around the ruling CPDM candidate, going under the cover of PRESIDENTIAL MAJORITY, have once more been summoned to take their place and assume their role in reducing the chances of some major opposition parties like SDF, which can boast of a sizeable following in several parts of the country.
It can therefore be concluded that with the recent determination of those political parties that have opted to give the elections a place of priority, in spite of all that is happening in the country, we can only assume that the opposition in Cameroon does not seem to have learned any lesson from past election experiences of deceptions which they at the end will always complain about. The truth is that even if the rules were put straight, that the opposition is running the race in various camps is unfortunate.
In addition to the present state of war and insecurity in the two Anglophone regions, their determination to be part of this election is not grounded on realism but rather shows a lack of concern for the suffering masses. We are aware that parties like the SDF are yet to forget memories of their boycott of Legislative elections of March 1992. They have since sworn never to boycott any other election. This stance of the party may be the fuel that is driving them to the October 7 election.
Notwithstanding, we believe the grievousness of the situation in the two Anglophone regions should have mitigated any reasons, no matter how valid, for any political party to take part in the October 7 polls. Not even the ruling party can advance convincing reasons for participating in an election when an appreciable segment of the population may be disenfranchised for no fault of theirs.
The current socio-political situation in the two Anglophone regions, and even the in the East and Far North Regions already bring to question the credibility and fairness of the October 7 Presidential Elections.
Posterity is watching.