CAMEROON'S RE-RUN ELECTIONS: PREP IMPROVES, MAJOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YAOUNDE 001208

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/C
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA ACTION OFFICERS
EUCOM FOR J5-1 AND POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/04/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KMCA EAID CM
SUBJECT: CAMEROON'S RE-RUN ELECTIONS: PREP IMPROVES, MAJOR
PROBLEMS PERSIST

REF: YAOUNDE 929

Classified By: Poloff Tad Brown for reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (C) Summary: On September 30, Cameroon held re-run
elections for 17 parliamentary seats following a Supreme
Court ruling that invalidated the July 22 election results
for these seats because of gross irregularities. The ruling
Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) did predictably
well, winning 13 of the 17 seats. The small SDF and UNDP
parties each gained two seats, while the opposition UPC lost
a place in parliament for the first time in 15 years. While
the September 30 election was a slight improvement over July,
it was marred by major systemic problems and a poor grasp of
democratic practices by all involved, especially the
political parties. End summary.

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The Ruling Party Wins, UPC Out
==============================


2. (SBU) According to the government's initial "trends"
(final results are not yet out),the CPDM took 13 of the 17
seats in this election, while the opposition Social
Democratic Front (SDF) gained two seats (in the Douala
constituency),enabling it to form a Parliamentary group.
The National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP),aligned
with the CPDM in government, gained two seats in the Far
North Province, its traditional base of support. The big
loser was the Cameroonian People's Union (UPC) -- the
offspring of the national independence movement -- which was
defeated in its Center Province, ethnic Bassa stronghold, and
will not have a seat in the National Assembly for the first
time in 15 years. The UPC's loss may spell the political
demise of its party head, former Minister for Planning (until
the September 7 shuffle) and longtime political heavyweight
Augustin Frederic Kodock. The other noteworthy loser was
Douala businesswoman and CPDM party boss Francoise Foning,
who had guaranteed CPDM victory in her Douala constituency,
only to lose two of the CPDM's four seats to the SDF. Voter
turnout was reportedly low (lower than 20 percent in Douala).

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Preparations Improve, Problems Persist
======================================


3. (C) Post fielded six observation teams covering all five
constituencies in this election. We found that
administrative preparations for the elections (handled by the
Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization,
or MINATD) had generally improved over the July election.
MINATD's task was vastly simplified: elections in five
constituencies and one municipality on September 30 versus 58
constituencies and 360 municipalities during the July 22
exercise. Nonetheless, it was evident that MINATD sought to
address some problems identified in the July exercise. In
the Extreme North Province, for example, GRC officials held
two supplemental training sessions to hammer home the
responsibilities of voting bureau presidents. Responding to
criticisms (including from this Embassy) about the
substandard indelible ink used to mark voters hands, MINATD
provided more and better quality ink this time around, though
Embassy teams observed some voters removing the ink with
little difficulty.


3. (C) Despite these improvements, a heightened sense of
vigilance, and the generally peaceful nature of this
election, the electoral process continued to be marred by
major shortcomings. The complicated voter registration
system created substantial barriers to voter participation
and vulnerabilities for voter fraud. Flaws in the voter
register resulted in numerous duplicate names. The
sub-standard ink rendered ineffective the single best
deterrent against multiple fraudulent voting. The ballot
system undermined the secrecy of the voting process and led
to voter intimidation and vote-buying. (Note: in a system
inherited from the French, voters received individual ballots
for each political party and had to insert one in the ballot
box while discarding the others. Voters could easily walk
away with unused ballots for reuse by others -- and we saw
evidence that this happened. End note.) Compounding these
systematic problems was the poor understanding of the
democratic process by administrative officials, civil society
groups, election monitors and, especially, the political
parties. CPDM and opposition party observers, for example,
were involved at every step of the process, but did not
appear to grasp the significance of their roles (e.g., to
proactively protect their parties against fraud or error).

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5. (C) Comment: The CPDM's control of the National
Assembly was already unassailable, so the political stakes
for this election were limited. Our take-away from this
election round is two-fold: first, the GRC and MINATD are
capable of running cleaner elections than they did on July
22; second, Cameroon's electoral system has massive
vulnerabilities that politicians continue to exploit to the
detriment of democratic process. As we continue to engage
the GRC on setting up the independent elections body (ELECAM)
and on preparations for the anticipated presidential 2011
elections (and likely constitutional reform),we will focus
on these two fronts: improve the system, and improve the
performance.
GARVEY