Cameroon election chaos - opposition
2011-09-27 21:09
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Yaounde - The main opposition party in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), on Tuesday denounced what it presented as irregularities in the organisation of a presidential poll due on October 9.
"There is a whole mountain of irregularities," Evariste Fopoussi, the SDF's point man during the campaign, told AFP, citing double entries or missing names in electoral rolls as well as delays in preparation.
"Dual inscriptions have been found on registers. At the same time the names of compatriots don't figure on the registers though they are duly inscribed and were given receipts when they were inscribed," the SDF says on its campaign website.
An AFP journalist saw several double entries on a list posted at the vote commission (Elecam) offices in the sixth constituency in the capital Yaounde. In some cases, different polling stations were attributed to one and the same voter.
Elecam began publishing the electoral registers on Friday, while the distribution of voters' cards began on Monday from certain offices.
"By law, this body should have completed the tasks [publication and issuing of voters' cards] 25 days before the date of the election, thus precisely on September 14," the SFD said on its campaign site.
"These insidious manoeuvres being deliberately worked out on the electoral lists by Elecam... reveal that massive fraud is being prepared," charged the SDF.
It warned Elecam "against these unacceptable dysfunctions which are of a nature seriously to endanger the good progress of the election and the sincerity of the poll".
On September 15, outgoing President Paul Biya, 78 and in power since 1982, declared that the independence and neutrality of the Elecam body were "guaranteed".
Cameroon's Supreme Court has validated 23 candidates for the presidency, including Biya and John Fru Ndi, the veteran opposition candidate of the SDF. Fru Ndi also has backing from civil society movements that accuse Biya of having locked down the electoral system to ensure that he is returned to power without hindrance.
