Road Companion to Democracy and Meritocracy: Further Essays from an African Perspective

16. Independent Electoral Commission, an Absolute Necessity

173 16 Independent Electoral Commission, an Absolute Necessity W ith the mandate of our first supposedly democratically elected parliament coming to an end, Cameroonians have one rare opportunity again to set this country on the firm path of democracy, responsible government, peace and prosperity. The parliament whose life-span is ending might be described as multi-party or pluralist but not as democratic. In fact, it only helped to create the illusion, especially for outsiders, that our dictatorship had been transformed into a democracy. This outgoing parliament started its term on the rebound from the denial and brutal suppression of the popular demand for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) which would have put this country on the firm path of genuine democracy. Similarly, the parliament has ended its term on the crest of the stubborn denial of another reasonable popular demand – the creation of an Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Quite interestingly, these parliamentarians who helped in no small way to give our dictatorship the semblance of a democracy, in exchange for personal gains within a mutual back-scratching philofolly, wanted their mandate prolonged by presidential decree. Some people are even crediting our dictatorship for the failure of their diabolic plan and equating it with the failure of the bill introduced by the UNDP for an Autonomous Electoral Commission (AEC). Those who think that the failure of both projects shows fairness, impartiality and even-handedness have failed to see that the first project was a call for the violation of the Constitution while the second sought to enhance the democratic nature of the Constitution. An Independent Electoral Commission remains an absolute necessity, a foundational pillar of genuine and long-lasting democracy, not only in Cameroon but anywhere else in the world. By the way, I tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with the UNDP to 174 Road Companion to Democracy and Meritocracy suggest that they should amend the title of their proposed bill from “Autonomous Electoral Commission” to “Independent Electoral Commission.” An “autonomous” commission would be one that makes its own laws and I don’t think we want to create a commission that would be a law-giver unto itself. What we need is a commission that works within terms of reference laid down by law but that is “independent” of any executive control or manipulation. I know that what the UNDP draftsmen had foremost in their minds was the idea of financial autonomy of the body but such financial autonomy is already part, in fact, a condition, of its independence and it is misleading and inappropriate to describe the whole body as “autonomous” because of this. I am making this suggestion because I know that, sooner or later, as we inch our way painfully towards genuine democracy, we will have to have an Independent Electoral Commission. I might even go as far as predicting that it would be created by the new parliament after the parliamentary elections in March 1997. That the ruling CPDM will lose the forthcoming elections with a landslide is not a matter of doubt to any well-informed person. But this does not mean that the CPDM may not win future elections, depending on the performance and track record of those who will take over the mantle of governance from them next year. So I believe that, by the time the next parliament, in which the CPDM will surely be one of the minor opposition parties, is sworn in next year everyone would have realized that an Independent Electoral Commission is an absolute desideratum for our democracy. For this reason, it is very amazing that the French, our most effective neo-colonial masters, gave excuses for not participating in the efforts of other foreign powers to help in the creation of an Independent Electoral Commission and the training of independent election monitors. It is indeed very confusing that, while the French were unwilling to contribute a few hundred thousand CFA francs to this project they have been most willing, with appropriate fanfare and alacrity, to contribute CFA 200 million francs worth of security equipment “to fight crime” in Cameroon. To go by past experience, do we have any guarantee that these sophisticated equipment would not be used in committing rather than fighting crime? 175 Independent Electoral Commission, an Absolute Necessity From all indications, the French are still unwilling to align themselves with the democratic forces in this country. We should, however, hold them...