2025 presidentials: Archbishop Kleda calls for urgent reforms to avoid chaos.

Kleda, a persistent critic of the Biya regime, made the call in a recent media outing. According to him, Cameroonians are yearning to have their voices heard through the ballot box. 

He said with the present legislations in place, particularly the Electoral Code, it is difficult to have free and fair elections in Cameroon.

Kleda told Douala-based Equinoxe TV that the times are changing and if there is democracy in Cameroon, the Electoral Code must be reviewed and urgently so, to ensure that results of elections reflect the aspirations of the population.

According to His Grace Kleda, there is no democracy in Cameroon. He said democracy only exists as name but in the real sense of the word, there is noting that suggests democratic practice in Cameroon. 

The country, he said, must break from the confusion wherein no one really knows who organises elections.

He said laws must be instituted to make it easier for the institution that runs elections to do so without any interference. The Archbishop also said Cameroon is still in an era wherein some people argue that they don’t organise elections to lose.

He added that in the current dispensation, the winner of an election in Cameroon is always known, even before voters go to the poll.

“In Cameroon like we always say, we already know those who will win even before the election. That is not democracy. Democracy in Cameroon exists just by name…in reality, it doesn’t exist,” Kleda remarked.

Who organises elections?

Still on electoral issues, Kelda said it is not clear who organises elections in Cameroon. He questioned: “In Cameroon, who organises elections?”, insisting that: “We need to define that clearly. But like they say, we don’t organise elections to lose…that says it all”.

He expressed his wish for the country’s democracy to see elections organised in line with best practices. 

“My wish is that elections in Cameroon should be free, fair and without fraud. We will see clearly who wins election in Cameroon,” he said. 

He further remarked that: “We need to fix the Electoral Code, so that all the candidates will have the same chances of winning”.

‘Leave if you can’t respond to people’s aspirations’

Quizzed on the mounting complaints of citizens on their living conditions and other difficulties, Kleda asserted that in democracy, leaders who can’t respond to the aspirations and concerns of the people should leave power. 

“Leaders who do not respond to the aspirations of the population must leave power,” he remarked.

Recall that in the last quarter of 2021, some opposition parties viz; the  Social Democratic Front, SDF; Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU; Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC, among others, grouped with civil society organisations to push for a review of the Electoral Code. Adopted in 2012, the Electoral Code in use has been repeatedly faulted especially by opposition stakeholders. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3310 of Wednesday December 04, 2024