CI-NEWS

Cameroon to hold first regional polls in December

2020-09-15

No: 531

Cameroon to hold first regional polls in December (

Elections in 10 regions including restive Anglophone areas to put in place councils provided for in 1996 constitution.

Cameroonian President Paul Biya has announced the country's first regional elections in December, including in English-speaking provinces where years of fighting between the government and separatists have cost some 3,000 lives.

Biya, who has been in power since 1982, signed a decree on Monday authorising the indirect elections on December 6 in the country's 10 regions, including in the restive North-West and South-West provinces.

The polls will put in place councils provided for in a 1996 constitution in a move towards decentralisation but not yet implemented.

The regions will elect 90 councillors, who will have limited powers on local issues. Twenty of them will be representatives of traditional chieftains.

Today, I signed a decree to convene the electoral colleges for the election of Regional Councillors. #PaulBiya#Cameroon#237Vote pic.twitter.com/rWD0QXYxxB

— President Paul BIYA (@PR_Paul_BIYA) September 7, 2020

The two Anglophone regions are home to a large minority of English speakers in a country where French speakers are the overwhelming majority - a situation that is the legacy of the decolonisation of western Africa by France and Britain more than 60 years ago.

In late 2016, long-standing complaints of political and economic discrimination against English speakers by the central government spilled over when lawyers, students and teachers began calling for reforms.

The government's lethal response to the protests provoked rebels to declare in 2017 independence for a region they call "Ambazonia", triggering a stronger crackdown by the authorities. Both sides have since been accused of committing atrocities in a conflict that has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Biya, 87, has promised the two regions a special status in a bid to quell the unrest.

The announcement comes at the time when leading opposition figures in the country have intensified calls for boycott – requesting for political reforms and solutions to the Anglophone Crisis.

The Social Democratic Front, SDF, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC, and the Cameroon People’s Party, CPP have announced a boycott of the election, threatening to organize street protests. Officials of the opposition parties who acted on an individual basis called on the Yaounde government to address this Anglophone crisis among other issues.

Kamto and Kah Walla hold that a fair and transparent election is impossible with the current electoral laws in place.

Kah Walla has been leading a black Friday movement with Stand Up For Cameroon, to call for political transition and regime change.

According to the provisions of the electoral code, there are two electoral colleges, as regional councilors could be delegates of divisions elected by indirect universal suffrage or representatives of traditional rulers elected by their peers.

While delegates of divisions shall be elected by an electoral college comprising municipal councilors, “the representatives of traditional rulers shall be elected by an electoral college composed of first, second and third class traditional rulers whose designation has been approved in accordance with the regulation in force” the national station reports.

Given that some traditional rulers hold the position of municipal councillors, they shall be called upon to cast their votes in only one electoralcollege.

“Delegates of divisions shall be elected through a mixed single ballot comprising a majority system and a proportional representation system. The vote for representatives of traditional rulers shall be of a single candidate majority system.”

CRTV’s George Kelong further explains that “while the 90 councilors in the 8 French-speaking regions of the country will be called upon to meet in their respective regional councils, the institution in the North West and South West regions will be known as a Regional Assembly comprising two houses … the house of divisional representatives with 70 members and the house of chiefs with 20 members in each of the two regions.”

With the election date announced, municipal councillors and traditional rulers are expected to begin expressing their desire to contest in the upcoming process.

A bloody gun battle triggered by an independent quest has torn the Central African nation apart. Pro-Independence Advocates have insisted that their freedom must become a reality after they proclaimed an independent state called Ambazonia in 2017.

An estimated 3.000 people have died while over one million persons have been displaced within and out of Cameroon. In a move to calm flaring tempers, President Paul Biya who has been in power for nearly four decades organized a national dialogue. Separatist advocates described the talks as “a sham”.

Coming days after the inaugural session of the follow-up committee of the major national dialogue, the announcement of regional elections comes amidst a tense political atmosphere.

The past one week has been marked by intensified shooting in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon – with no peace in sight.

Communication Minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi issued a statement, condemning the killing of a soldier on September 1st, 2020 – and vowed to dismantle armed groups in the communities wreaking havoc. Critics have remained categorical that a hitch-free election is unlikely to happen.

In the 2018 presidential election, only some 5 per cent of registered voters went to the polls in the Northwest region, according to ELECAM, the official electoral body, and 16 per cent in the Southwest. The figures for the Southwest could be inflated, according to multiple sources

The effectiveness of the election and electoral process remains uncertain,.

Many have maintained that only an inclusive and frank dialogue will solve the war that has raged for close to four years today.

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Cameroon to hold first regional polls in December