October 12 poll: Electoral manipulations threat to peace!.

His threat was a preemption of the predicted violence and even "insurrection", to borrow a charge that has often been slammed on irate demonstration by some protesters.

It is that unforeseen and even predictable violence that the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM party officials, at the summit like the Head of State, Paul Biya, and National Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon Cavayé Yéguié Djibril, and civil society leaders, have often sued for peace.

When Hon Cavaye opened the June session of Parliament, he said this year's presidential election "arouses much enthusiasm across the country and even beyond. In the face of this effervescence, I would not hesitate to call on the various actors to restraint, show responsibility and patriotism". 

He added that "we must do everything, each in his own way, to make the presidential election unfold in peace and serenity".

Earlier, President Paul Biya said at the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, that "we are beggars for peace”. 

"For Cameroon and most of our States, peace is the sine qua non for the survival of humanity and for sustainable development. Such peace remains dangerously under threat, notably from terrorism, conflicts, poverty, and climate disruptions…and such persistent threats are of utmost concern to us all," he had added. 

In one of his recent social media postings, Biya told Cameroonians that: “The overwhelming majority of our people aspire to have peace and stability”.

But that peace as pointed out by acclaimed peace crusader, Sir Ntumfor Barrister Dr Nico Halle, during an interview to mark International Peace Day, “is fragile, it is distorted, and has been compromised".

The Head of State and his entourage are aware of those threats to peace, especially with this year's presidential election. The Minister of Territorial Administration may dangle threats, but as empirical research and history have shown, there are often tigers of violence with devastating effects. It is important to point out that no threats, intimidation, and even bullets, can prevent violence in the face of electoral malpractices.

On Wednesday, Mgr Lontsie Keune, Bishop of the Diocese of Bafoussam, in a statement disseminated in the social media, pointed out some of those inevitable triggers.

The prelate said: "Injustice can never bring peace; electoral fraud can never bring peace; the rights violation can never bring peace; fear can never bring peace; the absence of alternation prepares the bed for future conflicts and not for peace”.

In extoling power of alternation as the true power of a sovereign people, he wrote: “Yes, it must be said, rotation in democracy is a very great asset for a nation because it allows peaceful renewal of power, prevents seizure of power by one group, strengthens the legitimacy of institutions, stimulates accountability of rulers and gives citizens a sense of belonging genuinely sovereign”. 

He further pointed out that: “The place of power appears as a vacuum, and those who exercise it cannot maintain themselves there except on condition of submitting to the rule of the democratic game; that is to admit that they are only temporarily there”.

In criticising the rejection of candidates who did not participate at the last municipal and legislative polls, he also questioned the postponement of the elections "which would have allowed several the political parties who did not take part in the 2020 municipal and legislative elections, to take part”. 

“Were these debates aroused and provoked on the ‘mandatory mandate’ and the ‘representative mandate’ for the purpose of disqualifying certain candidates? Was this report motivated by calculations for political and strategic ends?", he questioned.

In answering his own question, he said: “The people murmur…we interrogate each other. In view of this upcoming presidential election, we have noted the postponement of municipal and legislative elections, initially scheduled for March 2025, and which will eventually take place, barring another slide, after the presidential election".

The Bishop again asked: "Was this postponement motivated by calculations for political and strategic ends?". 

He then added that: “The place of power appears as a vacuum, and those who exercise it cannot maintain themselves there except on condition of submitting to it rule of the democratic game, that is to admit that they are only temporarily there,”

The prelate evoked the Ecclesiastes to clarify his statements. “There is a time for everything, a time for everything under the heavens”. 

His divine conclusion was that: “We proclaim that lasting peace is built on solid and fortified foundations of a genuine rule of law which are justice and truth". 

As The Guardian Post and other apostles for peace like President Biya, Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle and the Bishops of Cameroon, have said time and again, electoral fraud and manipulation to exclude rivals invite violence.

Cameroonians and the world are hopeful there will be no uprising before, during and after the proclamation of the October 12 election results. 

ELECAM, the Constitutional Council and the Ministry of Territorial Administration, should ensure that every stage of the election process is done in fairness, impartiality and the fear of God as a solution to the violence everyone fears.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3520 of Friday August 01, 2025