The president of Cameroon party for National reconciliation Cabral Libii in his recent outing has threatens to boy the February 9, 2020 upcoming twin elections, citing several reasons.
Here is the full statement by Cabral Libii National President of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation in English:
Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for being here.
Cameroon is about to experience another dark moment in the history of democracy if nothing is done, as the CPPN’s ruling party positions itself ahead of time as winner of the upcoming parliamentary and municipal elections by acclamation, through stratagems put in place to minimize the participation of opposition parties.
Indeed, at the end of an intense post-election crisis due to certain irregularities in the electoral process, we thought that the ruling party would realize that Cameroon has changed, and that with the rise of new political forces, it must to consent to losing the undue advantages it has long granted, like the seats of mayors deputies and senators, partly won by means of electoral fraud.
After 3 candidates in the last election went to court to challenge the election result, it was humanly unthinkable that the ruling party would still run the risk of turning the results in its favor by other means than the ballot box.
After the convocation of the electorate, mayors of the majority of the CPDM, sub-prefects, heads of tax centers, treasury officials, all signatories of the documents of the candidates’ files, set in motion what could rightly be described as a process of pre-election fraud, aimed simply at eliminating candidates from the opposition. Conscious of the unpopularity, some elected representatives of the dominant party because of the negative balance sheets they know, had no option but to go alone. Thus the candidates of the PCRN met with, among others, the following difficulties:
1– The refusal to sign the documents of the candidacy file by the elected officials (Extracts of birth, certificate of residence, bonds)
- It was the case in the district of Yaoundé 4 where the sub-prefect refused to sign the certificates of residence to the candidates of the PCRN essential part of the file
This was also the case in the north, which has 3 large regions. Our candidates were deprived of the competition by the refusal of the mayors to sign the birth certificates, some closed the offices for 2 weeks. The sub-prefects refused to sign the certificates of residence. Tax services taxed non-taxation certificates, which were free, etc.
- Elsewhere in the Center and SOUTH regions, the Treasury departments have opposed the purpose of not receiving payment of some of our deposits.
Even worse, some of our activists have been physically assaulted by the ruling party’s activists.
2– The prolonged absence of mayors for nomination to the CPDM for a whole week,
which reduced by 4 days the deadline of 15 Days provided for the preparation and the deposit of the files of the candidates to the elections. Not only did they for the most part refuse to sign the documents of the files, but in addition, they devoted a week to the activities of their parties notament the investitures to which the sub-prefects attended.
Curiosity came from the fact that CPDM activists were going to sign their files in the homes of sub-prefects and mayors, while opposition candidates were not served. The same scenario was observed in certain parquet floors for the pieces delivered by the courts.
What credible and transparent election can we expect with a planned elimination of the opposition? This is a pre-election crisis that is coming and I can not guarantee the patience of my activists face so many injustices.
With regard to all this; I invited the electoral council to take urgent measures. One of the things I asked him to do was to call an emergency session to reopen the filings for the files to deal with this injustice.
To this day these solicitations have remained without the slightest consequence.
As a result, I reiterate to the Electoral Council to grant candidates an additional 15 days to complete their files, and to personally ensure a better outcome.
In the absence of such a measure aimed at rebalancing the political game.
The Cameroonian Party for Reconciliation could resolve to no longer participate in the elections of 09 February 2020.
Thank you.
Cabral LIBII