Presidential election in Cameroon 2018

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Biya began his seventh term as president at the age of 85

The 2018 presidential election in Cameroon took place on October 7, 2018 in the West African state of Cameroon . It was won by incumbent President Paul Biya .

Starting position

English-speaking South Cameroon

The election took place in a difficult environment: the economic situation is tense, in some parts of the country the security situation is serious. The Boko Haram persists in border regions in the north of the country . In the Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in South Cameroon , conditions are de facto similar to civil war, with a growing minority calling for secession . The elections were supposed to take place across the country, but it was believed that the majority of people in the English-speaking part of Cameroon would not vote for fear of violence. Several separatist rebel groups had announced their intention to sabotage the election.

In the country with almost 25 million inhabitants, almost 6.6 million had registered as voters, according to the electoral authority. There are around 300,000 internally displaced people in the country . The organization of the election for these people was problematic: voting centers were set up for them, but it was feared that the voters would not be able to reach them on election day.

The favorite was the candidate of the ruling party RDPC / CPDM , the country's former president Paul Biya. As an election manifesto, he had his 1987 book “Pour le libéralisme communautaire” published again. The 85-year-old autocrat was campaigning for re-election for a seventh term. The political situation in Cameroon is accordingly characterized as “stagnation”. Biya competed against eight other candidates, the best known being Joshua Osih from the largest opposition party FSD / SDF and former minister Maurice Kamto from the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC / CRM). The youngest candidate was the 38-year-old journalist Cabral Libii . Shortly before the election, on October 5th, the Popular Front for Development (FPD / PDF) withdrew from the election campaign. Her previous candidate, attorney Akere Muna , called for the election of Maurice Kamto instead. The electoral authority ELECAM announced, however, that it was too late to have Muna struck off the ballot papers.

In the run-up to the election, violations of the provisions of electoral law in favor of the current president were repeatedly observed.

The government had invited the Organization internationale de la Francophonie as election observers , and the African Union also sent election observers to the country. Corresponding offers from the EU and the USA were not accepted.

election day

Election day was dominated by the conflict in South Cameroon. In Bamenda , the capital of the Northwest regions, security forces killed three suspected separatists who allegedly shot passers-by from motorcycles. Gunshots could be heard repeatedly in the city and a vehicle belonging to the state magazine "Cameroon Tribune" was shot at. In Buea were reportedly killed three rebels also. There were also firefights in other cities in the region, and some buildings went up in flames. In a district in Southwest ( Lysoka village ) the delivery of the election papers and papers was considered too dangerous and did not take place. In Northwest, the planned number of 2,300 polling stations has been reduced to 74 for security reasons. The turnout was just 5.36 percent in Northwest and 15.94 percent in Southwest, while the national average was just under 54 percent.

By law, the final election result had to be announced within 15 days.

Between the election and the announcement of the official result

Even before the official figures were published, Maurice Kamto declared himself the winner of the election on October 9th. Young voters then celebrated in spontaneous rallies on the street and asked President Biya to resign. Cabral Libii also stated that he was in the lead in the vote count. The two candidates were criticized for it, government officials and other candidates accused them of taking advantage of the naivete of the youth. Jean Nkuete , the general secretary of the RDPC / CPDM, saw Kamto's hasty declaration of victory as a violation of the law.

The state television broadcaster CRTV showed a report with alleged employees of Transparency International who described the election as correct. Transparency International distanced itself from this and made it clear in a press release that the organization had no official election observers in Cameroon.

Several candidates and voters asked the electoral commission to partially or completely cancel the election because of irregularities: some voters were not allowed to cast their votes and there was election fraud . Any admission of the complaints had to be legally decided before the results were announced, and on October 19 the Constitutional Council rejected all 18 complaints.

Provisional results were announced on October 14, 2018. Biya won the election with around 71 percent, Kamto received around 14 percent.

Before the official final results were announced, security measures were tightened in the country's two largest cities, Douala and Yaoundé , on October 21 . The house of activist Kah Walla was surrounded by police so that she could not attend a planned protest rally. The Reuters journalist Josiane Kouagheu was temporarily arrested when she wanted to cover the protests.

Result

On October 22nd, the Constitutional Council announced the final result. Unsurprisingly, Paul Biya won with 71.28 percent of the vote. The turnout was 53.85 percent.

candidate Party (name in french / english) Abbreviation be right %
Paul Biya Rassemblement démocratique du Peuple Camerounais / Cameroon People's Democratic Movement RDPC / CPDM 2,521,934 71.28
Maurice Kamto Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun / Cameroon Renaissance Movement MRC / CRM 0503.384 14.23
Cabral Libii Li Ngué Union Nationale pour l'Intégration Vers la Solidarité / National Union for Integration Towards Solidarity UNIVERS 0222.020 06.28
Joshua Oshi Front Social Démocratique / Social Democratic Front FSD / SDF 0118,706 03.35
Adamou Ndam Njoya Union Démocratique du Cameroun / Cameroon Democratic Union UDC / CDU 0061,220 01.73
Garga Haman Adji Alliance pour la Démocratie et le Développement / Alliance for Democracy and Development ADD 0055,048 01.55
Ndifor Frankline Afanwi Mouvement Citoyen National Camerounais / Cameroon National Citizens Movement MCNC / CNCM 0023,687 00.67
Serge Espoir Matomba Peuple uni pour la rénovation sociale / United People for Social Renovation PURS / UPSR 0019,704 00.56
Akere Tabeng Muna Front popular pour le development / People's Development Front FPD / PDF 0012,262 00.35
Registered voters 6,667,754
Votes cast 3,590,681
Invalid votes 52,716

Source:

criticism

In an article in Foreign Policy the election was described as a “master class of feigned democracy”: While the citizens were apathetic about the election and there was practically no voter turnout in some regions, the election was presented as normal in state media and apparently independent observers provided it good grades. Internationally, the President ensures through well-networked public relations and lobbying firms that his regime is perceived as a guarantor of democratic rights and as a representative of the will of the people. Kah Walla called the system an " electoral dictatorship ". Personnel and structural factors would ensure that complaints against alleged electoral fraud had basically no prospect of success.

After the results were published, Maurice Kamto reiterated his claim that he had won the election and presented alternative figures for the outcome of the election: 39.4 percent of the voters voted for him and 38.5 percent for Biya. On his Facebook page, he showed inconsistencies in the official figures. Observed irregularities were listed on his party's website. Kamto's lawyer Michèle Ndoki, who was temporarily arrested after the election, pointed out that many regional results protocols had not been initialed by the election observers of the participating parties , as would be required by law, but that the signatures were on separate sheets. Thus, it cannot be checked whether the numbers announced by the electoral commission are identical to the numbers confirmed by the observers. Kamto called for the votes to be recounted by an independent, international body.

The Archbishop of Douala, Samuel Kleda , also expressed doubts about the official figures: President Biya had done nothing to help the people suffering from Boko Haram in the extreme north region , so it was impossible that so many people (were official 89 percent in the region) would have voted for the president. He also questioned the election results in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biya remains president in Cameroon. In: Deutsche Welle . October 22, 2018, accessed October 22, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Cameroon: Divisions Widen Ahead of Presidential Vote. International Crisis Group , October 3, 2018, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Jens Borchers: Election in Cameroon: President Biya is in power. In: Deutschlandfunk . October 2, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018 .
  4. ^ Cameroon: Elections in Times of Crisis. In: Euronews . October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Katrin Gänsler: Before the election in Cameroon: Cameroon's youth want change. In: Deutsche Welle . October 4, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  6. ^ David Signer : The language dispute in Cameroon is escalating. In: NZZ . December 13, 2017, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  7. ↑ David Signer: Cameroon in the stranglehold of its patriarch. In: NZZ . October 3, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Cameroon's president is aiming for a seventh mandate. In: Liechtenstein Fatherland . October 7, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  9. ^ Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban: Cameroon rejects Muna's withdrawal, Matomba denies coalition. In: Africanews . October 6, 2018, accessed October 9, 2018 .
  10. ^ Élections au Cameroun: une "fraude" dénoncée. In: MSN . October 6, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 (French).
  11. ^ Cameroun - Presidential: l'opposition dénonce des médias publics pro-Biya. In: Le Point Afrique. September 24, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 (French).
  12. ^ African Union Deploys Long-Term Election Observation Mission ahead of Presidential Elections in the Republic of Cameroon. African Union , September 5, 2018, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  13. ↑ a b Cameroon presidential polls rocked by deadly violence, security fears. In: punchng.com. October 7, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Ruth Maclean, Brenda Kiven: Gunfire in Cameroon's anglophone regions deters voters on polling day. In: The Guardian . October 7, 2018, accessed October 8, 2018 .
  15. ↑ a b Archbishop Kleda expresses doubts about election results. In: Domradio . October 24, 2018, accessed October 24, 2018 .
  16. ^ Moki Edwin Kindzeka: Two Candidates Claim Victory in Cameroon Vote. In: Voice of America . October 9, 2018, accessed October 9, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Katrin Gänsler: Opposition candidate declares himself the winner. In: Deutsche Welle . October 8, 2018, accessed October 9, 2018 .
  18. ↑ International election observers in Cameroon are not affiliated with Transparency International. Transparency International , October 9, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
  19. ^ Moki Edwin Kindzeka: Cameroon's Election Body Reviewing Petitions to Cancel Presidential Poll. In: Voice of America . October 11, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
  20. ^ Election complaints in Cameroon rejected. In: Deutsche Welle . October 19, 2018, accessed October 21, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Adeline Atangana: Cameroun - Paul Biya en tete: Voici les résultats probables de l'election présidentielle du 07 Octobre 2018. cameroon-info.net of October 14, 2018, accessed on October 22, 2018 (French).
  22. ↑ Ruth Maclean: Cameroon locks down major cities before release of election results. In: The Guardian . October 21, 2018, accessed October 21, 2018 .
  23. ↑ Angela Quintal: Pleased that sanity has prevailed… In: Twitter . October 22, 2018, accessed on October 23, 2018 .
  24. ^ Daniel Mumbere: Paul Biya wins Cameroon presidential election with 71.28% (official). In: Africanews . October 22, 2018, accessed on October 23, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Les résultats - Classement des candidats par ordre des suffrages obtenus . In: Cameroon Tribune . October 23, 2018, p. 19 (French, page online at camerlex.com (PDF; 9.15 MB)).
  26. ↑ Jefcoate O'Donnell, Robbie Gramer: Cameroon's Paul Biya Gives a Master Class in Fake Democracy. In: Foreign Policy . October 22, 2018, accessed on October 23, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Kamto insists he is winner of Cameroon's Presidential poll. In: journalducameroun.com. October 23, 2018, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  28. ^ A b Dominic Johnson : After the presidential election - Against Cameroon's "election fraud". In: taz . October 28, 2018, accessed November 5, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Maurice Kamto: My declaration after the proclamation of the results of the Presidential poll of October 7, 2018. (Video; 12:46 min.) In: Facebook . October 22, 2018, accessed on October 23, 2018 .
  30. ^ What Cameroonians need to know about the presidential elections of October 7, 2018 in Cameroon. In: mrcparty.org. October 24, 2018, accessed November 13, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Cameroon Opposition Candidate Calls For Presidential Vote Recount. In: MSN . November 3, 2018, accessed November 5, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Cameroon Bishop takes swipe at Biya's re-election. In: journalducameroun.com. October 24, 2018, accessed October 24, 2018 .