BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
Professor Ndiva Kofele Kale, SDF Senatorial List Leader for the South West Region has said the March 25 Senate elections in Bangem and other parts of the region was more of bullets than ballots.
Addressing media practitioners on March 28, Prof. Kale watered down the declarations of the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji that the senate elections were orderly, peaceful, free and transparent.
The SDF shadow minister of justice said contrary to the minister’s declarations, the elections failed to meet the minimum internationally-accepted standards for a free, fair and transparent election.
The professor of international repute said: “I believe the Minister’s assertion warrants a response from the man who headed the SDF list in the Southwest Region, where contrary to the Minister’s declarations, the elections failed to meet the minimum internationally accepted standards for free, fair and transparent elections…Minister Atanga Nji cannot say the elections went on in a peaceful atmosphere when in Menji and Bangem there was continuous gunfire throughout that day… in such circumstances, there is no way elections could have taken place ‘peacefully, freely and fairly’ in the words of the Minister,” Kale said
He maintained that credible reports coming from the aforementioned areas indicate that the security situation was such that virtually nobody dared to step out of their homes, as the streets were completely deserted.
Kale posits that if the Constitutional Council validates the results of the Southwest Senatorial elections, then it must also declare that the approximately 200 CPDM Councillors who did not vote violated the law and must be disenfranchised as enshrined in Section 227(2) of the Electoral Code.
He said it was due to such irregularities that they have filed a motion at the Constitutional Council, urging the Council to cancel the March 25 Senatorial polls in the South West Region.
Barrister Njenje Valentin Kleber, elector and the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Representative in the Regional Supervisory Commission in the South West Region, filed a petition Wednesday, calling for the cancellation of senatorial election results in Lebialem, Kupe- Muanenguba and the entire South West Region.
Njenje argued that no election took place in Bangem, the headquarters of the Kupe-Muanenguba Division “as terror and horror gripped the locality as there was sustained exchange of gunfire coupled with live bullets between unidentified assailants and the forces of law and order, causing all civilians to flee for safety.”
According to Njenje, just 27 out of the 93 electors cast their votes in Lebialem while the polling station was shut down at 4:30 pm in violation of the provisions of the Electoral Code and the presidential decree summoning the electorate.
He equally stated that in the South West Region, electors were quarantined in hotels requisitioned by the administration under the guise of preserving their security in the face of the highly volatile climate sequel to the crisis in the North West and South West Regions in violation of their rights.
Meanwhile, the Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU), also petition the council to cancel election results in the Upper Plateau and Menoua Divisions of the West Region due to what they term electoral irregularities.
Cameroon’s constitutional council is expected to rule on these petitions as soon as possible given that it is expected to proclaim results of the election of senators within 15 days following the close of the poll.