Kleda’s call for reforms ahead of 2025 presidentials: Biya should heed divine message!.

His Grace Kleda has without mincing words, declared that: “In Cameroon, like we always say, we already know those who will win, even before an election is held. That is not democracy. Democracy in Cameroon exists just by name...in reality, it doesn’t exist”. 

The prelate 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 polls. Kleda speaks with divine authority and should be listened to by President Paul Biya, to whose desk the buck ends.

Historically, and based on numerous academic research, flawed elections in Africa have always ended in violence. Cameroon lived the weird experience in 1992 and 2018 and 2025 should be an exception.

Why do elections in Africa end up with fatality and collateral damages? Researchers have found out that the advent of liberal democracy in Africa took place against the backdrop of the single-party system that had prevailed in many countries like Cameroon since independence.

The quick and reluctant transition, forced by the wind of change, meant that political attitudes and mindsets, reminiscent of the single-party monolithic regime, were conflicting with the emerging pluralist political model.

Secondly, as Rodrick Henry writes in Understanding Elections Related Violence in Africa, "the new liberal democratic model in almost all countries was ushered in by the autocrats who had been the architects of the repressive and dictatorial single-party state model".

Other political scholars have argued that “electoral violence is a major phenomenon in Africa that seems to defy all possible solutions or remedies".

They go further to state that with the "current trend or love for power," by leaders, "it is even becoming more difficult for electoral violence to be curbed in modern day Africa. 

More worrisome is the fact that the great percentage of these conflicts are induced by the election process as election periods in Africa are referred to as a do or die seasons".

Nobody should actually die or be injured before, during and after any election. This can only be possible if elections are free, fair, transparent, inclusive and credible. 

But do elections in Cameroon meet these standards? The answer is an unequivocal no.

That explains why the divine voice of Archbishop Kleda has said, and went on to ask: “In Cameroon, who organises elections?” In answering his own question, he said "...we don’t organise elections to lose...that says it all”.

At the last presidential election, he reiterated that “one has the impression that in the Central African Subregion, election results are decided before voting takes place”.

ELECAM understands the sensitive stakes at play. That is apparently why recently, its Director General of Elections, Dr Erik Essousse, convened all the body's  Regional Delegates and IT Chiefs in Yaounde, for a seminar that focused on assessing the electoral, administrative, and financial activities of the election organ, as well as preparing for challenges to be encountered, especially during the 2025 presidential election.

He insisted to the staff that: “By fostering transparency, efficiency, and innovation, the institution aims to further consolidate trust among Cameroonians in the electoral process”.

For an enlightened Man of God like His Grace Archbishop Kleda, to insist that the electoral process is still fundamentally defective to the advantage of the ruling party, is indicative that there is no public trust in the country’s institutions.

ELECAM may have the spirit for trust, but the Electoral Code, which needs an urgent review, wipes out any iota of public faith in it and by extension, elections designed to trigger violence.

That is the concern of the Man of God, with a divine message: “My wish is that elections in Cameroon should be free, fair and without fraud. We will see clearly who wins election in Cameroon”.

As Head of State, only President Paul Biya can order an amendment of the Electoral Code, to modify the flaws that have been pointed out by various independent elections observers, civil society and credible opposition political party leaders, to guarantee an election that ends in peace, irrespective of who wins.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3312 of Friday December 06, 2024