Parliament Has No Legitimacy - Civil Society Activist
By Kini Nsom
The Coordinator of the Community Initiative for Sustainable Development, COMINSUD, Michael Fon Nsoh, says the 2007 twin elections were just a legal and constitutional requirements that were void of any legitimacy.
He made the remark to the press in Yaounde on March 22, as COMINSUD and its collaborators of the Civil Society Coalition published a report on the conduct of the 2007 parliamentary and council elections.
While highlighting the irregularities and the fraud that rocked the
polls, Fon Nsoh, said the outcome of the elections did not reflect the
aspirations of the Cameroonian people.
It was in this perspective that he said the present Cameroonian
parliament lacks legitimacy.
To him, the National Assembly that has a majority of MPs, who rigged their way to the place, is suffering from a crisis of legitimacy and should not debate any constitutional amendment on behalf of the people.
While further buttressing his argument, Fon Nsoh said although the population of Cameroon is estimated at some 18 million people, figures indicate that only 2,925,455 people voted in the elections out of the 5 million that are claimed to have registered for the elections.
The civil society activists even gainsaid such figures, arguing that they were highly inflated because of multiple voting and the stuffing of ballot papers in some areas. He said fraud was doomed to characterise the elections, given that President Paul Biya failed to entrust its organisation in the hands of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM as earlier promised.
As usual, he said the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, MINATD failed to ensure free, fair and transparent polls.For one thing, he said authorities did not respect the choice of the electorate in selecting candidates. To him, the authorities violated the law of universal suffrage.
Fon Nsoh said it was sickening that some constituencies in the country were over-represented in parliament while some thickly populated ones were under-represented for no reason.
He said it is unacceptable that the South Province that has a population of 373,798 has 11 MPs while the Northwest with 1,237,833 people has only 20 MPs. To him, the ratio of parliamentary representation here is too low. He claims that the population of the South Province is equal to that of Mezam Division, observing that the Northwest should be represented by at least 30 MPs.
Fon called on government to leave single candidate constituencies in order to remedy the situation.The report that the Coalition of Civil Society organisation presented called on government to fine-tune the electoral law and give a chance to independent candidates.
It also recommended that the selection of candidates for the municipal elections should not be based on party lines.The report says too many elements that were considered as yardsticks for free, fair and transparent elections were totally disregarded during the 2007 twin elections.
In many places, the civil society activist charged, the voting was not by secret ballot, besides the fact that the field was not level for all the candidates.According to the report, unethical practices such as violence and intimidation by the administration and some political leaders marred the elections.
It regrets the fact that a day after the polls, on July 23, the police arrested 40 militants of the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU, for laying siege at the Foumban Divisional Office, demanding the publication of election results. The corruption of youths, buying of votes and multiple voting were also cited as ills that smeared the elections.
"A new and growing phenomenon has been implemented in the electoral process, whereby representation is no longer decided by who can best represent the people's interest, but by those who can best corrupt the results. Just to maintain a few in Douala IV, Bonaberi, youths were noticed voting several times.
One youth confirmed that he was given
FCFA 2000 each time he voted and brought back the ballot paper of the
SDF, while another said he was given FCFA 5000, says the report.
The report equally regrets that despite pledges by the SDF and the CPDM
to send more women to parliament, only 23 are in the National Assembly
out of 180 MPs. Thus, women's representation is only 12.5 percent.
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