As Cameroon prepares for local and parliamentary elections, young people have organized protests across the central African state against the aging political leadership. Cameroonian youths have been disrupting meetings to demand more say in politics and for octogenarian leaders to step down.  

Youth activists from the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) sing and shout that they no longer want elderly politicians to represent them.  

The group of about 400 young people erected barricades and marched Sunday through the Mvogmbi neighborhood of Cameroon’s capital.

27-year-old Aristide Omgbwa, a member of CPDM’s youth wing, said it is unthinkable that people who are above 80 years of age and who have been in power since 1995, with nothing to show as achievements, still want to make decisions for the public.  The party should explain why they hate the youth, said Omgbwa, and why they want youth – who are the future of Cameroon – to continue to suffer.

Hundreds of Cameroon youth have been protesting in at least 23 towns across the country against elderly politicians seeking office during the upcoming February local and parliamentary elections.

In the town of Sangmelima, a group of angry youth crashed a swearing-in ceremony for the ruling party.  In the clashes that followed, at least seven people were wounded.

While in the town of Tokombere, youths interrupted a meeting they said tried to impose 81-year-old lawmaker Cavaye Yeguie Djibril as candidate for their region.

Djibril has been a lawmaker for 47 years and speaker of Cameroon’s national assembly for 27 years.  

33-year-old Ibrahima Bascuda said the octogenarian can no longer represent the views of youth.

He said most of the old politicians have abandoned the populations they are supposed to serve.  They do not attend meetings and only show up with huge sums of money to corrupt the electorate, claimed Bascuda, who for the most part are naive.  He said the youth are saying no to old politicians who are frail and cannot even participate at debates in parliament, where laws that affect the future of the nation are voted on.  The old(er generation) should allow the youth to build their own future in parliament and local councils, said Bascuda.

But it’s not just octogenarian politicians who are being targeted by Cameroon’s angry youths.

In the town of Ebebda, Cameroonian youths gave chase to 62-year-old lawmaker Epondo Fouda Cecile after he announced plans to run again for re-election after fifteen years in office.  

Bernard Fongang is a senior ruling party official and close aide of CPDM party chair and Cameroon President Paul Biya.  He said after the weekend’s protests, Biya has given new guidelines for party candidates.

Fongang said Biya has given firm instructions that only youths who are of good character, have not been involved in acts of violence and corrupt practices, and who have been active in party and community activities should be given priority to compete in the elections.  Youth form a strong political force, says Fongang, and the CPDM wants to modernize.  He said four out of every ten candidates must be youths.

Fongang said Biya had given instructions that should a youth party member compete for a parliamentary seat with anyone in power for 25 years, the youth should be given priority.

Biya himself is Africa’s oldest ruler at 87-years-old and has been in power in Cameroon for over four decades.  

Critics have raised concerns about the aging president’s health.    

If there were a vacancy, 84-year-old President of the Senate Marcel Niat Njifenjis would take over as head of state.  

70 percent of Cameroon’s lawmakers and 80 percent of its senators are over the age of 60. 

The protesting youths say it is time they hand power to a younger generation to prepare for the future of Cameroon. 

Source: VOA 

Cameroon has warned opposition political parties against any acts that may jeopardize its local council and parliamentary elections in February.  The warning comes after opposition party leader Maurice Kamto, who claims President Paul Biya stole last year’s October election, called for a boycott of the polls. 

Cameroon territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji says the government will not tolerate any acts that disturb the free conduct of February’s local and parliamentary elections.
 
“Politicians specialized in hate speech, manipulation and provocation, as well as defiance of state authority should know that they will face the heavy arm of the law in case of any misconduct,” he said.  “I want to make it very clear.  Promoters of political parties will henceforth be held accountable in case of any disruption of public order related to political parties.”
 
Nji’s warning came after opposition leader Maurice Kamto at a Monday press conference announced a boycott of the February polls. 
 
Kamto had planned to run for office but changed his mind and accused authorities of trying to destroy his party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM). 

Kamto says he does not doubt that the objective of, what he calls, the illegitimate Yaounde regime, in collaboration with the ministry of territorial administration and the different state services, is to destroy the CRM party.  He says they want to eliminate the party from the political map and terrorize the Cameroonian people to keep the ruling class in power.
 
Kamto accuses Nji of scheming with Cameroon’s elections management body (ELECAM) to fix last year’s presidential election to re-elect long-serving President Paul Biya. 
 
The election authorities and Nji deny the polls were anything but free and fair. 
 
Kamto said his boycott was based on electoral laws that favor Biya’s ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and the ongoing separatist conflict. 
 
His call for an election boycott received mixed views from opposition supporters like 30-year-old Justin Alega.
 
He says Kamto has betrayed his supporters and is plugging his political party into the group of losers.  Because, when they are not represented at the national assembly, says Alega, they will no longer have a platform for their voices to be heard.  He says if Kamto wants to change Cameroon’s laws he says are bad, he should do everything to be voted-in as a lawmaker.
 
31-year-old Kamto supporter Anabel Mbi, however, says he supports the decision to boycott the elections.

“There is no need going for an election when you know that your victory will be stolen and often when you protest you are arrested. This is dictatorship,” he says.

Political analyst at the University of Yaoundé Divine Kweh says the opposition MRC should fight for political change from within, as the new parliament’s mandate will last five years.

“The meaning is that for the next five years, MRC will only make their voices heard through street protests because they will not participate at decision-making circles directly,” says Kweh. “Kamto should have gone in for the elections and try to effect changes from within parliament.”
 
Kamto called on Monday for other opposition parties, civil society, and religious groups, to join in boycotting the elections.
 
Territorial Administration Minister Nji warned he would arrest Kamto, or anyone else, who staged unauthorized protests against the elections. 
 
Kamto and more than 400 of his supporters spent nine months in prison for street protests over the October 2018 presidential election results.
 
Authorities released Kamto in October for a national dialogue on the separatist conflict in Cameroon.  But he was banned from holding public events.

Source: VOA 

Cameroon’s opposition leader said on Monday his party would boycott February’s legislative and local elections, hardening his standoff with the authorities, which are also grappling with a deadly separatist insurgency.

This is the latest sign that President Paul Biya’s attempts to foster national reconciliation have faltered, after peace talks in September were boycotted by separatists and opposition politicians.

Maurice Kamto, the head of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), called on other opposition parties, as well as civil society and religious groups, to join MRC in boycotting the elections on Feb. 9.

“The electoral code is tailored to allow the current regime to cheat and remain in power forever,” he told a news conference.

Kamto has been mobilising dissent against Biya since losing what he says was a fraudulent presidential election in October.

Biya, who has governed Cameroon for nearly four decades, is seeking to calm unrest stoked by the vote as well as a separatist crisis that has cost 2,000 lives over the past two years.

Kamto was arrested in January after leading protests which security forces dispersed with live bullets, and faced insurrection charges before a military court.

He was released last month in what the government said was a gesture of national reconciliation.

The separatist revolt, which began as peaceful protests by English speakers against what they see as their marginalisation by the French-speaking majority, now aims to create an independent state.

It has emerged as the biggest security challenge of Biya’s tenure, forcing half a million people from their homes.

Source: Reuters