Catholic Bishops have said the October 12 presidential election was marred by certain irregularities that seriously hinder our progress towards democracy.

In a statement on Monday, the episcopal conference said it monitors elections partially because the Ministry of Territorial Administration offered him limited badges despite requesting for over 300. It however praised the conduct of the election that it held under the calm atmosphere. But the National Espicopal conference said it noted that the minutes prepared by ELECAM were signed by the representatives of the parties present at the polling station on the first and last pages, but not on the middle pages containing the vote count as published at the polling station.

According to him, the following things were noted:

-High abstention rates (cases of Kribi 1 and 2, Lycée de Tsinga, Matamfen Supérieur, etc.);

-Relocation of certain polling stations;
Failure to update the electoral register, which still contained the names of deceased persons;
-Some bins were positioned in such a way as to allow voters to see the ballot papers discarded by the previous voter, which was likely to influence the vote;
-In Douala, Yaoundé, Maroua, Garoua and Bertoua, some voters left with ballot papers for candidates who were not their choice;
-There were also cases of polling stations that existed on the ground but were not included on the official ELECAM list.
-An incident was reported in the city of Garoua, where, following an intervention by the police on the convoy of the candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who was returning from his polling station, clashes between the police and young people resulted in serious injuries to a police officer and the burning of a gendarmerie truck.
-After the voting day, other scenes of violence in the towns of Dschang and Douala were observed.
-With regard to the counting and publication of the results of the vote per polling station, a step provided for in Article 113 of the Electoral Code, our observers noted that these operations generally began at 6 p.m., in the presence of members of the Local Voting Commissions, scrutineers recruited from among voters registered on the polling station lists, antl a few observers and voters.

The results of each candidate were made public in the 12.257 polling stations where we observed, and since the counting was public, the people recognized themselves in the votes that were counted and left generally satisfied. As the people left, they expressed their hope that they will still recognize