By: Francis B. Nyamnjoh
It is election day in Cameroon, Sunday, June 23, 2002. Polling stations nationwide have opened. Cameroonians are queuing up to vote for councillors and parliamentarians, when suddenly on national television and radio President Paul Biya postpones the elections for a week. His reason: inadequate preparations and poor distribution of ballot papers due to the incompetence of the Minister of Territorial Administration (MINAT)—Ferdinand Koungou Edima, whom Biya dismisses along with some of his key collaborators. Some see in this a sign that the president has at last yielded to more than a decade of pressure for a level playing field in Cameroon politics. To others, it is all déjà vu, a ploy to give a semblance of legitimacy to an election process fundamentally flawed from the outset.
Such scepticism is fuelled by the fact that the just postponed elections had already been postponed six months before, to ensure that “thorough preparations were made”. It is also fuelled by memories of the manipulations and manoeuvres that have corrupted and emptied multiparty politics of any meaning for most Cameroonians. Rescheduling the elections to coincide with the FIFA World Cup finals on June 30 was seen by many as a sinister move, for a football loving country like Cameroon. Since 1990, rigging elections has been perfected to the level of the ridiculous, making the theme a standing joke among satirical comedians, critical journalists, opposition politicians and ordinary Cameroonians who have mostly given up on expectations of change under the current regime. Unfortunately, much of this seems lost to the international community, for which Cameroon does not command the same celebrity status as Zimbabwe.
When Cameroonians are asked about the future of democracy, a common reply is: “on ne se tape même plus le corps ici” (“One has given up. Let’s wait and see.”). It does not seem to matter how many people cry foul nationally and internationally, as the rigging ‘caravan’ continues with impunity. No one has captured this better than the popular comedian Tchop Tchop, in ‘le chien aboie, la caravane passe’. “Elections”, the victors in his sketch claim, “are like a football match where one must prepare one’s players physically and psychologically. One can consult the Pygmy witchdoctor, corrupt the referee, or motivate (bribe) one’s opponents… You organise your elections knowing fully well that you are going to win them. You have yourself to blame for not having known what to do”. (Tchop Tchop, Candidat Unique de l’Opposition, vol. 1 audio sketch, 1997.)
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