- BY MILDRED NDUM WUNG KUM
Government’s plan to execute the 2020, 2, 9 municipal and Parliamentary Elections faced real stiff opposition from persons barricading polls. Election day in Bamenda was marked by scenes of lockdown, military cars in circulation, dead streets and goverment officials going to polls under heavy cover of military artillery.
The normal ambience often perceptible during an election was stripped as the activity was taking place against a strongly condemnable backdrop amidst distabilised security
The twin elections were once more a stage for the four years old anglophone crisis to exhibit a manifestation of opposing views between Anglophones canvassing for an independent state against the will of the ruling CPDM government preaching a one and indivisible Cameroon. Just on the eve of elections, separatist fighters orchestrated a campaign to dismantle every effort towards the electorate. A six days lockdown was programmed, warnings were sounded, life threatening messages circulated and some attacks were recorded on candidates aspiring for leadership positions in politics all against the twin polls.
A Polling booth in one of troubled zones, voters can barely be spotted
The elections took place within a planned lockdown. Thus from dawn to dusk on the d day of elections, polling stations were boycotted by the hand full of registered electorate who anticipated voting.
The entire northwest region had two thousand three hundred and forty eight polling stations yet these were fused into sixty polling centers for security reasons with some polling centers hosting about eleven polling stations.
Merging polling stations together into polling centers further complicated movement of voters to polling centers as it entailed covering miles to get to a polling center, a task which simply put voters off the trend.
In the entire city of Bamenda, just the Old Town and Up – station neighbourhoods were somewhat lively with voting for obvious reasons; Old Town is inhabited by Hausas and Mbororos who pay no heed to the separatist ideology of lockdown, election boycott or secession meanwhile the Up Station neighborhood is the administrative and military headquarter of Bamenda, it harbours government stalwarts who were prompt at exhibiting voting duties for politico- administrative defensive purposes.
Voting at the Old Town Polling Station
In the northwest region regime loyalties like minister Mbayo Felix, Paul Atanga Nji, Adolph Lele Lafrique, Senator Regina Mundi and Mbah Acha Rose were accompanied by a proportion of the local masses to the polls. They however all voted under strict military escort.
Voting witgin tight security
Staff of the local elections regulating body ELECAM were for the most part of the day idling as just a few voters turned out to vote. It appeared some polling stations recorded zero turn out of the electorate.
Gun battles between state and none state arm forces were recorded in Snongwa, Bafut and Bali. The case of Bafut was perculiar as election material was burned and some military equipment set ablaze by suspected separatist fighters. Elsewhere in Bali, gun battles between the state and none state armed groups resulted in the dead of about fifteen separatist fighters.
Statistics of polling stations revealed small insignificant turn out of the population which was a clear sign of voter apathy from the very point of voter registration.
For example Up station Bamenda with a massive population of voter age group reflected registered electorates between one hundred and fifty and slightly above five hundred and fifty registered voters with less than fifty persons voting in some polling stations
The twin elections pitted six political parties contesting for seats in the municipal and parliamentary: the CPDM, UDP, SDF, OPDC, UNDP and BRIC.
A number of irregularities were noted at polling centers.
-The Army Camp Voting Centre at up station Bamenda recorded the following oddities:
-Polling station A: No political party representative to monitor elections. The SDF monitoring agent came after 9am against the Constitution and was sent away.
-Polling station B, Only CPDM polling agents available.
-Polling station C, only CPDM and SDF polling agents present.
-Sixth military sector A: just CPDM polling agents available.
-Regional Delegation of National security A: the SDF party representative sent home because his name doesn’t appear on the list of those to supervise the party.
-The ballot papers of all political parties contesting the elections were not available in polling stations.
-Absence of international observers at polling stations
– Absence of polling agents for UDP and OPDC in all the polling stations at the Army Camp Voting Centre.
-The names of some registered voters didn’t appear on the list but they voted by showing their ID or votera card to polling agents.