CPDM Wins Buea Council as 82% of Registered Voters Boycotted.

                    Who will become the next Mayor of Buea?

Southwest Governor Bernard Okalai Bilai about to vote on Election Day,February 9,2020

By Christopher Ambe

 The CPDM, which has managed Buea Council since 2002, was on Tuesday proclaimed winner of the February 9 municipal election in the Southwest regional capital, whereas its lone challenger, the SDF, has alleged vote-rigging.

The CPDM won with  6,368 votes(85.6%) out of the total 7,588   who actually voted, and the SDF secured 1,068(14.2%).

Magistrate Ako Kenneth Tanyi, chair of the Council Supervisory Commission, proclaimed the results in the absence of SDF representatives, who reportedly boycotted.

A total of 43,320 had registered but the election was massively boycotted as separatists seeking for the independence of Anglophones had threatened to disrupt the poll and attack anybody who would come out to vote.

The threats, despite beefed –up security by the State, kept thousands of voters indoors.

In fact, out of the 43,320 registered voters, 35,732 (82.5%) stayed away from voting.

It is unclear whether the SDF, which alleges rigging, filed any case in court.

 Efokoa John Mofoke , the SDF municipal list leader told this  reporter, yesterday , how his party’s representatives  at  polling stations in  the Bwitingi neighborhood were chased out at gun point, reportedly because they turned down bribes to endorse ballot-stuffing.

Now with the CPDM declared winner of   Buea Council, the battle now is: who will become Mayor of Buea?

David Mafany Namange, Buea CPDM President was the municipal list leader. But that does not automatically mean that he will be the next mayor.

“It is not automatic that municipal list leader will be the next mayor. But he could become. It depends on how the councilors play their game”, Hon. Meoto Paul Njie, who was CPDM campaign leader for the municipal and parliamentary elections in Buea, yesterday told this reporter on phone.

 There are reportedly at least two other councilors who have vowed to gun for the juicy office of Mayor of Buea. Councils now manage  more money, up to 15% of the State budget.

It would be recalled that in 2002, late Arthur Lisinge Ekeke  was the CPDM municipal list leader- and there appeared to be some party arrangement that he be the lone candidate for the office of mayor.

But, a shrewd Charles Mbella Moki (now two-term senator), defied the supposed arrangement, and accepted nomination as a challenger to Lisinge. 

At the end, Mbella Moki won Lisinge Ekeke by 21  to 20 votes and became the Mayor of Buea.