Cameroon’s Supreme Court, acting as the Constitutional Council, will this week certify the results of the country’s July 22 legislative and municipal elections. This week, the court has been hearing and ruling on 103 petitions brought by various candidates. Ni John Fru Ndi is national chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Cameroon’s leading opposition party. He called for the cancellation of the elections even before they were held on the grounds they were not going to be free and fair.
Fru Ndi told VOA the court will mostly likely declare the results in favor of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) of President Paul Biya.
“I do not expect anything much from them because in the elections of ’92, they told us that their hands were tied. And all along they have given their blessing to illegality. There are quite a number cases where they have rejected and thrown out instead of calling for a rerun. And the SDF was calling for a rerun of all electoral process in the country. And I think that they tell you that the CPDM has won, and they cannot call for a rerun of the election at all. I do not foresee them changing anything from what Mr. Biya (President Paul Biya) has told them to do,” he said.
Fru Ndi said he does not have any confidence in the Cameroon electoral system and the country’s judicial system.
“The judicial system is put in place by the government. The judges are nominated by Mr. Biya. For instance, in an election, Mr. Biya tells the judges, I will increase your salary; I will give police protection, I will give you new cars, but this will be after election. In other words, after you proclaim me winner. And of course the judges go and proclaim the same thing,” Fru Ndi said.
He said while the law should be blind for everybody, in Cameroon, there are two constitutions, one serving the government and the other serving the rest of the citizens.
The SDF won some parliamentary and municipal council seats in the July 22 election. Fru Ndi said his party’s leadership would be meeting this weekend to decide if they will take those seats or not.
“As we said before, even if we won100 seats, we can still call for a rerun because the electoral fraud that was executed during this election has never been done anywhere else. Because of this masquerade, credible institutions like the Commonwealth refused to supervise the elections because they didn’t want to give the election legality,” he said.
Fru Ndi said the SDF was expecting the Supreme Court to exert its independence by canceling the July 22 elections because they are not credible. But he said the court would instead declare the elections for the ruling CPDM party of President Paul Biya.