afrol News, 12 October - The opposition and voters at large complain over the poor transparency of yesterday's presidential polls in Cameroon as incumbent President Paul Biya is set to win his fifth term. According to reports in Cameroon's state radio, unofficial results show that Mr Biya is set to win a landslide victory.

The Cameroonian government mouthpiece today quoted unofficial results from the independent election commission after more than half of the votes allegedly had been counted by hand. According to these results, President Biya was achieving a landslide win in nine out of Cameroon's ten provinces.

Opposition leader John Fru Ndi however was getting the best results in the English speaking North West province, according to the radio report. This province has been the traditional stronghold of Mr Fru Ndi's SDF party. The 15 other opposition candidates were polling less well and were mostly confined to their local strongholds.

The inability of the opposition to unite spoiled their limited chance to challenge Cameroonian strongman Biya. In the one-round presidential election, only a united opposition and a low level of vote rigging could have prevented Mr Biya's re-election. The fragmentation of the opposition and the expected vote rigging yesterday kept most Cameroonians from voting.

According to reports from the opposition, Cameroonian voters and foreign observers, yesterday's poll was far from transparent and fair. Problems started already at the manual compiling of voter lists, where only four out of Cameroon's estimated eight million potential voters had been registered. Just one hour before the poll started, the list was reduced by 600,000 names, allegedly because the same persons had been listed several times.

Supporters of President Biya nevertheless were given many opportunities to vote several times, according to reports from Cameroon. Opposition leaders have documented that many pro-Biya voters have received up to "four or five voter's cards" to be used with the same identity card. Several international journalists have been shown multiple voter's cards issued on the same person.

The Cameroonian opposition has estimated that up to 1.5 million fake or multiple voter's cards were circulating in Cameroon prior to the poll. As the voter lists are not computerised, control efforts are ruled out. In addition, registered voters in opposition strongholds yesterday reported their name was not found on the voter list, thus barring them from voting.

While supporters of President Biya were given the opportunity to vote several times, most opposition supporters did not bother to vote at all. The split in the opposition and the expected vote rigging provoked a high voters' apathy. No one expected a change in government as a result of the poll.

Also President Biya today was happy everything was "going on as planned," as he told state media. Cameroonians were "behaving calmly and with dignity," thus assuring a smooth election, the President stated.

By staff writers

© afrol News

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