February 9 elections: CPDM clinches 139 seats ahead of re-run

After weeks of campaigns and controversies surrounding Cameroon’s February 9 municipal and legislative elections, the ruling CPDM party has finally emerged victorious, winning a giant share of constituencies.

Though almost very certain, the official results were released today by the constitutional council.

According to the official results, President Biya’s CPDM scored 139 of the 167 declared parliamentary seats as compared to 148 seats of 180 in 2013.

It should be noted that the voting was annulled days ago in some areas all in the restive North West and South West regions where government has been combatting armed separatists for over three years now.

Annulling part of the results, the constitutional council declared that the elections are going to be re-run on a later date. This has also raised a debate on how transparent Cameron’s democracy becomes by the day, with some saying the re-run is an attempt by government to relinquish a few seats to the opposition after clinching almost everything.

The Social Democratic Front, SDF party on its part which had 18 seats in the outgoing assembly noe has just five MPs, a drastic drop which was predicted by many, due to the party’s wavering stance and the loss of its stronghold – the crisis hit regions.

Separatists had called for a boycott of the elections, threatening to deal with anyone that violated their order.

Just three days after the polls that witnessed a low turnout in the regions, government forces massacred over 35 in Ngarbuh village in the North West region, reopening the debate on how professional the military is. The forces it should be noted are also combatting Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North, making their task more difficult.

With the elections to be re-run in some constituencies in the North West and South West regions,any have questioned how possible it will be, as little or nothing has been done to resolve the security challenge.

MMI