Cameroon Supreme Court Handed Exclusive Right To Publish Election Results

The widely debated changes is considered a weakening of the country’s electoral commission while elsewhere, candidates aspiring for the post of president are required to pay deposits of US$10,000 up from US$3,000

Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala, Cameroon

11/04/2011

Parliament in Cameroon has adopted a series of electoral reforms including a new law according the country’s Supreme Court, exclusive rights to proclaim future election results.  The court, which is the country’s highest, sits in for the yet-to-be established Constitutional Council.

The decision, reached at the end of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly that spanned 6 to 9 April implies that the elections management body, Elections Cameroon or ELECAM has been stripped of the right to publish even provisionary election results in the Central African nation.

The decision comes ahead of a planned presidential election this year in which 29-year-serving Paul Biya [one of Africa's longest-serving leaders] is expected to seek re-election. He amended the constitution in 2008 to eliminate term limits.  His ruling CPDM [Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement, CPDM] holds an overwhelming majority at the 180-member National Assembly.

The government-proposed electoral reforms come in the wake of the political stalemate in the Ivory Coast where election results proclaimed by the independent electoral commission were overturned by the constitutional council to declare incumbent Laurent Gbagbo winner.

 “It’s been our general concern considering what’s happening in other countries and I think the President of the Republic was timely on this issue, considering the fact that Cameroonians have been complaining.  We think that the answer has come,” Francis Enwe, a CPDM parliamentarian said after the adoption of the draft law Saturday.

But the reforms have sparked widespread debate among especially opposition-inclined Cameroonians residing both within and without the country.  Many argue the Supreme Court, whose members are appointed by the President of the Republic, lacks independence and would not be fair, while others point to the fact that the electoral commission has been significantly enfeebled.

Jean Jacques Ekindi is the lone Member of Parliament from the MP [Progressive Movement], a breakaway party from the ruling CPDM.  “The deal is bad for Cameroon.  While ELECAM is claiming to be responsible for elections, it is in fact not responsible for anything.  I think that this law will bring a lot of problems.  We’re going backwards because if elections are clear and fair, why should ELECAM not publish the results,” he queried Sunday.

ELECAM was created via a presidential decree in December 2006 and its 12-member electoral council named in 2008.  But the neutrality of the board members triggered prevalent discontent in the opposition as eleven of them came from Biya’s ruling party. Biya’s opponents cried foul with the leading opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF, threatening a boycott of any election organized by ELECAM until its composition was overhauled.

Now, Parliament has adopted a law to increase its board membership to 18 and the six incoming members are due appointment by the President of the Republic.  But the opposition has warned that not numbers, but the political nonalignment of the board members matters.  “We have a lot of questions about the 18 members that are going to be appointed.  Are they going to appoint 18 new members or just add six more to the 12 who come from the CPDM?  Whatever the case, we insist that neutrality and the impartiality of the new members be respected which means that before their appointment, they should have been known to be neutral,” Hon Simon Chinda of the SDF cautioned.

Elsewhere, Parliament also raised the amount required as deposit from presidential aspirants from US$3,000 [FCFA 1.5 million] to US$10,000 [FCFA 5 million].  The decision is seen by analysts as a way of injecting greater credibility regarding candidates vying for the post of president in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community’s largest economy.  This year’s presidential election has already attracted candidatures from a wide range of Cameroonians of all shades.

Dr Agbor Ambang is a political analyst in the capital Yaounde and author of the book; “Democracy and Power Alternation in Africa.” He says increasing the deposit for candidates is a considerable milestone in the evolution of Cameroon's democracy.  “I don’t think that 5 million francs should stop any serious-minded candidate.  Any candidate who is unable to raise 5 million francs lacks seriousness.  It’s a welcome solution because 1.5 million francs created room for just any adventurers to vie as candidates,” he concluded.

Meantime, some members of the opposition argue that the reforms fail to address a number of lingering yet very pertinent issues.  This year’s presidential poll is constitutionally slated for October and ELECAM began registering voters nine months ago.  Latest statistics show that less than a million voters have been enrolled on voter lists nationwide to add to five million from the last legislative elections in 2007.  Suspicion among Cameroonians the elections will not be fair and transparent have significantly contributed to the conspicuous voter apathy.

Observers suggest the government should yield to opposition demands and embrace two-round elections, an idea that has been summarily dismissed by the CPDM-dominated parliament over the years.  Increasingly, there are growing calls for political parties and the civil society to be included on the enlarged ELECAM board as a means of better accommodating the country’s sociopolitical dispensations, the use of biometrics in the electoral process, vote-counting and publication at the level of polling stations and the exclusion of the country’s Ministry of Territorial Administration [Interior] in the election process.