Cameroon: Opposition reacts to Election Date 

Reactions have trolled in from the opposition party, Social Democratic Front who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the announcement of the October 7th date for the presidential election in Cameroon by President Paul Biya.

Robert Wafo, the current spokesman of the opposing party is taking a different opinion and stated as much:

It is difficult to understand that in a democratic country, the President of the Republic expected to be candidate during the elections holds the exclusive right to choose the date for an election. In other countries where democracy is ideal, the date of the presidential election is known at least twelve months in advance.’’

Members of the ruling CPDM party in the country, however, held a different opinion asserting that the president acted in accordance with the law and within the confines of the law.
Though the President announced the date for the presidential election, he did not indicate whether or not he would run for a seventh re-election. His supporters have consistently presented him as the ideal presidential candidate.

“I am not surprised. The head of state is a legalist, a Republican, he does it within the framework of the law, he respects the deadlines and he did well to convene this presidential election, which must be a great moment of republican truth, because the sovereign people will choose democratically and within the framework of the laws of the Republic, the destiny that he wants,” Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement (CPDM) supporter Hervé Emmanuel Nkom added.

While the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front had nominated Joshua Osih as their candidate. More candidates have come out to declare themselves interested in the race. One of them is the lawyer and former vice-president of Transparency International, Akere Muna, former student leader of a citizens’ movement, Cabral Libii and the well-known jurist, Maurice Kamto.

In the past years, Opposition parties in the have not succeeded to form a coalition.

 

Image Credit: AFRICA NEWS