By Christopher Ambe
Cameroon’s Supreme Court
,sitting in lieu of the yet -to -be constituted Constitutional Council, early
this morning rejected all the 41
petitions filed before it by 14 of the 29 political
parties that contested the polls, challenging the conduct of the country’s last September 30
legislative elections .
The petitions, which had called for the annulment of
election in 28 constituencies- cited irregularities such as absence of ballot
papers of some political parties, opening buying of opponents’ ballot papers,
chasing away of some party representatives at polling stations by partisans of
the ruling CPDM.
Passing his judgment after the examination of all the 41 petitions, the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, Alexis Dipnada Moulle,
said the massive rejection of the complaints was due to lack of sufficient
justifications by the petitioners as well as
the non-respect of laid down
legal procedures for filing of such actions before the Court.
The massive rejection has forced many to question whether defense
lawyers for the complainants didn’t do “their
home work “ before initiating legal actions or it is just that the Court was not
objective in passing the judgments as it has often been accused of in the past by opposition parties on
similar matters.
Among the rejected petitions that were rejected was
one concerning Fako West (Buea Rural) the constituency of Hon.
Emilia Monjowa Lifaka,former
Vice-President of Cameroon’s National Assembly, where two political parties-the
ruling CPDM and the leading opposition party, the SDF fielded candidates for
the lone seat.
Campaign and ballot papers for the CPDM candidate Hon. Emilia
Monjowa Lifaka were printed and made available by ELECAM, Cameroon’s elections
management body, while those of the SDF candidate Ikome Nikenga Joseph were not
printed.
Upon realization, the SDF reportedly informed ELECAM and was
assured that the mistake would be corrected before Election Day.
But to the unpleasant surprise of the SDF even on Election
Day the campaign materials expected from Elecam and ballot papers of their
candidate Ikome Nikenga were not available .This almost pushed its numerous supporters
to disrupt the polls but for the timely intervention of Buea Divisional
Officer, Kouam W.Paul and Mr.Ikome Nikenga ,who calmed them.
After the publication of lists of qualified candidates’
nation-wide by ELECAM, there was some confusion as to whether the candidacy of
the SDF candidate Ikome Nikenga was rejected or not. It happened that his name
was published in some newspapers as qualified but reportedly not found in some
ELECAM publications, putting the SDF in the state of real confusion.
Senior officials of ELECAM later came cleared the doubts,
insisting that the candidate was not rejected. This raised hopes of the SDF as
they were still ready to receive late campaign materials from the election
management body; but their wait turned sour when even on Election Day, ballot
papers for the SDF candidate did not come and Elecam did not give any official
explanation.
The Supreme Court judgement rejecting the SDF call for re-run
in Buea rural therefore confirmed Hon. Monjowa Lifaka as the elected MP for Fako
West Constituency for her 3rd term.
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