Or how the parliamentary opposition shot itself in the foot in 1992...
By Dibussi Tande
The Republic of Senegal has a new president following run-off elections which resulted in the defeat of outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade by Macky Sall, his one-time protégé and former Prime Minister. One of the main reasons for Macky's victory is Senegal’s two-round electoral system, which calls for a second round of voting if no candidate obtains more that 50% of votes cast. This is unlike countries such as Cameroon which have a one-round/first-past-the-post electoral system.
In 1992, Cameroon's National Assembly failed to vote on a motion instituting the 2-round system.
In the first round of voting, President Wade obtained 34.81% of votes cast while Sall obtained 26.58%. If this had been the first-past-the-post system practiced in Cameroon, Wade would still be President of Senegal...
The two-round system is a potent tool for dislodging sit-tight incumbents, especially in the face of a splintered opposition (there were 14 candidates in the first round of elections in Senegal). Not surprisingly, there have been strident debates on Cameroonian forums about the need to adopt the two-round system in the country, along with questions why this system has never been a central element in the political discourse in Cameroon.
What many don't realize is that just prior to the first multiparty presidential election of October 1992, the two-round system was hotly debated in the newly elected opposition-dominated multiparty parliament. A motion to adopt the two-round election system was withdrawn at the last minute in a game of political horsetrading between the ruling CPDM and the UPC leadership. Two-decades later, the Cameroon opposition is still paying the price of that act of political hara kari.
Here’s a look-back at the historic parliamentary debates of 1992 whose outcome still haunts Cameroon to this day:
the thrust of your article is on means and ways to compensate for weak opposition political parties and their titular heads to be sworn to power. aiding and abetting weak politicians to rise to power should not be the goal of democratic elections. Cameroon is a typical case where opposing politicians need to be schooled on the science and art of politicking and to swallow their ballooning ego.
Posted by: juju | Tuesday, 27 March 2012 at 05:12 AM
How appropriate is it to place at the doorstep of the entire Opposition the schemings of one dubious parliamentarian - Augustin Frederic Kodock - the way you describe for the famous one round versus two-rounds presidential election of 1992 in Cameroon?
Posted by: J. S. Dinga | Wednesday, 28 March 2012 at 06:30 PM
With 30 million FCFA required to register for future Presidential elections....Welcome to the era of fewer presidential candidates, and even the plantain farmer at SDF may not afford it......
Posted by: juju | Friday, 06 April 2012 at 09:31 AM