Cameroon - Politics

Political protest against the one-party system was widespread up to 1992, through a campaign of civil disobedience known as villes mortes or ‘ghost towns’, when towns were virtually closed down to prompt reform. Multiple political parties became legal in 1990 and legislative elections were held in March 1992. They were contested by 48 political parties but boycotted by the Social Democratic Front (SDF). The ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) took 88 seats, the opposing parties a total of 92 seats. The CPDM formed a coalition with the Movement for the Defence of the Republic, which had six seats, thus securing a majority of eight.

A presidential election was held in October 1992; Paul Biya was re-elected with 40% of the votes (in 1988 he had stood unopposed, winning 98% of the vote). Of the eight candidates, his nearest rival was John Fru Ndi of the SDF, who gained 36%.

The 1997 general election, postponed from March, took place in May, attended by Commonwealth observers. Before the elections there was an outbreak of violence in the North-West province which was attributed to the Anglophone separatist movement; a curfew was then enforced and public meetings banned. The CPDM took 109 of the 180 seats in the elections. The SDF won 43 seats, the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP) 13 seats, and the Union for Democracy and Change (UDC) five seats.

In the run-up to the presidential election, the leading opposition parties, the SDF, the UNDP and the UDC, were urging reform of the presidential electoral system, and introduction of a two-tier process. The three parties boycotted the election and advised their supporters not to vote. The Commonwealth therefore declined to send an observer mission. In October 1997 President Paul Biya was re-elected for a seven-year term (he had held the presidency since 1982), defeating the six other candidates in a landslide victory, receiving more than 92% of the votes cast.

In the June 2002 general election – postponed by one week when the government failed to provide sufficient ballot papers – the ruling CPDM gained 133 seats, substantially extending its parliamentary majority, while SDF took only 21 (mainly in the English-speaking North-West), UDC five and UPC three. Elections in nine constituencies with 17 Assembly seats were annulled by the Supreme Court and re-run in September 2002, when 16 were won by the CPDM.

Biya won a landslide victory in the October 2004 presidential election receiving 75% of the votes.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2002 that the long disputed and fought-over border areas of Nigeria should be ceded to Cameroon. These areas include the Bakassi peninsula in the south which is believed to contain very large offshore reserves of oil and gas. In a UN-brokered agreement in June 2006, the two countries agreed on a phased transfer of the peninsula. Nigerian troops withdrew in August 2006 and the last of the Nigerian civil administrators were to leave by mid-2008.

The elections in July 2007 extended the ruling CPDM’s majority in the National Assembly. On announcement of the results, 103 petitions for annulment were filed with the Supreme Court. A re-run ordered by the Court for 17 of the 180 seats in September 2007 resulted in reducing the CPDM’s holding to 153 seats; while SDF took 16, UNDP six, UDC four and Progressive Movement (MP) one.

In early 2008, a series of violent protests sparked by an increase in fuel prices, the high cost of living and public concern at Biya’s proposal to abolish presidential term limits, prompted government to reduce fuel prices and increase civil service salaries. The National Assembly nonetheless approved a constitutional amendment removing presidential term limits which opened the way for Biya to seek re-election in the 2011 presidential elections.