Elections Cameroon: Paul Biya prepares another NEO-by another route

Editorial Comment by The Herald Newspaper

Paul Biya has hidden the outcome of an adhoc committee he appointed since July for 45 days to set up Elecam. Last week he proceeded on to another maneuver intended to cover up his list of appointees for Elecam membership. In the end the new election management organ will be just as it suits him; no more, no less. What do you call that? Absolute power at work.

A bracadabra. The more you look is the less you see, chants the magician. In a well-practiced gesture of continuous hand-contortion, the conjurer mesmerises his audience – and behold, gets his result. Guess who the magician is? What is he conjuring? Paul Biya, is not only head of state, he is also an accomplished political magician. He makes the most unlikely, even impossible, things happen.

Before our very eyes, Elecam, the new elections management organ, much expected to point the way to transparent election, will be out and certified to be what the public asked for. Yet in reality it will be anything but just that. It may even turn out to be just as unhelpful or even harmful as its predecessor, the National Elections Observatory. Such is the way in which the master-magician uses his inordinate powers. The state for the coming political drama was set a long time ago.

To calm the public over persistent calls for more credible elections, Biya smartly announced he would create an independent election organ. Instantly he got an overly enthusiastic commonwealth secretariat on board to lend the idea credibility. Malborough House in London showered Yaoundé with time, people and their expertise, and funds. The nation was
mobilized in a farce to offer their views. Then came Biya’s moment, Abracadabra, said the
magician. The more you look the less you see, and behold it is Elecam that emerged. A whittling down of the nation’s expectations.

Yet the process has only begun. Nothing has since been heard of a government ad hoc committee appointed in July for 45 days to draft the Elecam law and dispositions.
Instead what the public got last week was a series of consultations towards appointing Elecam members. When the ad hoc committee was appointed it was believed that its draft would be rendered public for criticism and suggestions from the wide public. As it is everything is happening quietly in the secret chambers of the magician’s alchemy. In time the public will be informed of the final state of Elecam.

Paul Biya plans again to stand at the presidential elections of 2011, and, if not, he will sponsor a
hand-picked successor. It is anyone’s guess that Elecam is the tool that should make life easy for
him-not harder.

So there should be no surprise when both the provisions and members of Elecam are tailored for the purpose which they are to serve. Appointees are supposed to be non-partisan. This can
be ruled out in Cameroon. Even people who show a semblance of integrity at the beginning gradually get compromised. The very clause of renewing their lucrative jobs is weakening.

In Cameroon the in-expansiveness of the economy which limits possibilities in the private works in favour of state power. Not seeing or knowing what to do in the private sector, people have developed the habit of looking up, almost helplessly, to the public sector.

Elecam should also have offered the opportunity of ironing out the exaggerated unevenness of legislative constituencies. Since 1992 the criterion of population was set aside for an arbitrary allocation. The south province with a population of fewer than 400.000, for instance, was allocated 11 parliamentary constituencies against three for Mezam division in the
North West province with a slightly higher population.

On voter registration which remains a sticking point, the simpler answer is for Elecam to work with the national identity card service of the police and fill up their registers.
Yes, all of this would be fine but for master – magician who mesmerizes Cameroonians. For the more you look or ask of Elecam, the less you’ll see or get.
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