By Amina Hilda
The Divisional Officer (DO) of Ebolowa II, Nokuri Samuel Nokpa, has banned a rally meant to install the South Regional bureau of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party.
In a release issued on October 12, the DO argued that the venue is unavailable and purported that the event would disturb public order.
The installation ceremony was going to take place on Saturday, October 14, at the Nko Ovos municipal stadium in Ebolowa, from 8am to 5pm.
Surprisingly, the DO attributed the ban to “unavailability of an event location” and the “risk of disturbing public order”.
He charged the Commander of the Regional Gendarmerie Brigade of Angale, the Public Security Commissioner of Ebolowa ll, and the Special Commissioner of Ebolawa II, to ensure that the ceremony does not hold in the municipality.
The ban is seen as politically motivated, given that it is not the first time officials of President Paul Biya’s government are restricting the country’s main opposition party from holding events.
The government has repeatedly suspended or banned peace protests, campaign rallies, installations and ordinary party meetings of the CRM.
The ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) appears to be seeing the CRM’s expansion as “a threat” to its hegemony.
In April 2016, two years to the 2018 Presidential polls, the Divisional Officer of Bertoua I prohibited a CRM rally from holding in the municipality. He also raised concerns about public order.
This was after the DO dispatched security officers to guard CPDM militants to celebrate President Biya’s 83rd birthday in March.
After the CRM finished second in the 2018 elections, which the party’s chair, Maurice Kamto, claimed were rigged, the CPDM regime continued subtle attempts to prevent the party from expanding.
In October 2019, the DO of Ebolowa II reversed an authorization he had earlier issued permitting the CRM to hold a rally in the town.
CRM rallies have also been banned in Douala and Yaounde in the past.
But the bans have been recurrent in the South and East Regions, where the CPDM almost enjoys a monopoly.
The South Region is even more dear to the ruling party because it is the birth place of its chair, Paul Biya.
But the repeated administrative restrictions against the CRM, without any concrete justifications, leave many wondering about the freedom and democracy prescribed in the country’s Constitution.
Cameroon has over 300 political parties, but critics say most of them are extensions of Biya’s CPDM.
But very few of them will be contesting for the 2025 presidential elections.
Moreover, most of them lack the stamina to withstand the ruling CPDM party, which has been in power since its creation in 1985.
