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The Social Democratic Front (SDF) party has been celebrating the election outcome in the Northwest Region, not because they won, but because Councillors of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement party voted for them.
The SDF controls just one Municipal Council in the Northwest Region, which is Bamenda III Council, and this means just 28 Councillors were expected to have voted for the party.
But as it turned out in the votes counted after the Senatorial Elections, 40 Councillors voted for the SDF throughout the Region.
The party grabbed 35 out of the 237 votes that came in from Mezam Division.
Meanwhile, five extra votes for SDF came from CPDM Councillors in other Divisions, giving the party 40 out of the 1,127 votes collected from the Region.
This means that 12 CPDM electorates decided to put party discipline aside and embrace the ideas of the opposition SDF.
To the 2nd Deputy Mayor of the Bamenda City Council, Afung Lucas Ngu, these extra votes meant a lot to the SDF.
“Those who thought they have buried the SDF now have their eyes to cry. The message is clear that a political party is not the number of Councillors or Members of Parliament. It is the ideology. I was expecting 28 votes but we have 35 in Mezam. This means that the SDF is in the hearts of everyone, including Councillors of other political parties,”
Mayor Afung Lucas said.
CPDM militants have frowned at the turn of events.
“The CPDM had aimed at a 100 percent victory in the Region and one of the strategies put in place was to cage the voters, treating them to a luxurious lifestyle. Caging SDF voters was impossible because the party doesn’t believe in such,” said Angu Tim, a CPDM sympathizer.
Failing to buy SDF electors to their side is a clear signal that the CPDM’s plan to ‘seize’ the Bamenda III Council from the party will be difficult come 2025, political pundits have said.
By Soulemanu Buba
