afrol News, 15 October - Official figures put Cameroon's incumbent President Paul Biya as the winner of Monday's presidential polls. As the votes are almost completely counted, Mr Biya is said to have won more than a 75 percent support of Cameroonians. The opposition however claims the poll has been rigged, as it has been in the last two presidential elections.

President Biya is, according to official preliminary results published by the Yaoundé government, re-elected by a 75.2 percent majority vote. His major rival, John Fru Ndi, had gathered only 17.1 percent of the votes, while Adamou Ndam Njoya of an opposition coalition had taken 4.7 percent of the votes. These figures were presented today by Cameroonian Minister Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya.

The opposition had however cried foul already before Cameroonian voters went to polling stations all over the country on Monday. Mr Fru Ndi's Social Democratic Front (SDF) and other opposition parties claimed that the ruling party was distributing multiple voter's cards to its supporters while potential voters in opposition strongholds had difficulties in obtaining voter cards.

Reports of multiple voter's cards were sustained by foreign observers, who were presented several cards issued in the same name. International journalists in Yaoundé had observed the same. While Biya supporters were enabled to vote up to four times, many opposition supporters did not bother to vote as it was generally anticipated that the poll would be rigged by the ruling CPDM party.

After the poll, Mr Fru Ndi further has alleged that the count has been rigged by the government, calling the results "pre-fabricated". His party's own tally had showed him leading with 45 percent of the vote against 39 percent for President Biya. "The entire process was tainted by too many irregularities," Mr Fru Ndi today told the news agency Reuters.

The SDF leader yesterday called for the annulment of the entire poll exercise. Mr Fru Ndi urged the Yaoundé Supreme Court to suspend the count due to the many irregularities. The party expected the court to annul any results presented by the government.

Also international human rights groups have condemned the Cameroonian poll. The Paris-based Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) on Wednesday urged the international community to condemn the vote rigging. "Too many irregularities" had marred the poll, FIDH said, basing its conclusions on observations by Cameroonian human rights groups.

President Biya is renowned for poll rigging after he introduced "multi-party democracy" in 1992. In the same year, he narrowly won against Mr Fru Ndi in a vote generally described as fraudulent. In 1997, Cameroon's main opposition parties boycotted the poll and President Biya officially was re-elected by 92.6 percent of the votes.

International and domestic observers also widely criticised the 1997 poll as "fraudulent" and, according to the US State Department, "electoral intimidation, manipulation and fraud" have dominated Cameroonian polls since 1992. This year, a small group of international electoral observers from the Commonwealth was present during the elections. The observers have yet to present their report.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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