afrol News, 20 October - The evaluation of the Commonwealth election observer group that monitored Cameroon's presidential polls was published today. It concludes that "the electoral process lacked the necessary credibility," although Cameroonian authorities were praised for providing "free and open access."

The group of 16 Commonwealth election observers, headed by former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark, had been in Cameroon for two weeks. It was present at over 260 polling stations, 21 counts and nine district results collation centres, following an invitation of the government of Cameroon to observe the 11 October election.

While the observer group had been given an "enthusiastic welcome" by the people of Cameroon and were let to freely monitor all sides of the poll, the overall conclusion is far from positive. "On the basis of our observations we believe that in a number of key areas, the electoral process lacked the necessary credibility," the main conclusion is.

- In particular, we are concerned that many people who wished to vote were not on the Voters' Register, so were denied the right to vote, the report of the Commonwealth observers says. Only about half of Cameroon's adult population had been included in the voters' list.

The report stressed that while it was possible to count the number of those who voted, "no one can quantify the numbers of those who have become disenchanted and disengaged from the democratic process, particularly young people," the report said. The observers thus repeated criticism from the opposition, which also focused on an incomplete and manipulated voters' list. "This problem needs to be addressed," the Commonwealth report added.

The election observers were also sceptical regarding how the whole electoral process was run. Key decisions were taken by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and De-Centralisation and it was observed by the National Elections Observatory. "We believe that an independent election management body to organise all aspects of the electoral system ... would bring important improvements to the electoral process in Cameroon," the report said.

- However, even given the serious deficiency in the management of the register, we believe that the intention of those who voted was reflected in the result, the Commonwealth observers nevertheless concluded. Incumbent President Paul Biya officially gained three quarters of the votes.

As the Cameroonian opposition earlier had stated, however, mostly pro-government voters had been empowered to vote. This, the opposition claims, was done by manipulation of the voters' list, providing government supporters with multiple voter cards and providing transport for these voters.

Potential opposition voters, on the other hand, often did not find their names in the voters' list. Many others did not bother to vote as the opposition was utterly split and the traditional vote rigging was widely expected. Cameroon's main opposition party on this basis has asked the Yaoundé Supreme Court to annul the entire election.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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