George Ngwane

The Iceberg of Opposition Politics in Cameroon (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Shortcomings of the Opposition
It is generally argued that the playing field in Cameroon does not militate in favour of Opposition parties winning elections. With no genuine independent/neutral persons within an Independent Electoral Commission (be it National Elections Observatory or Elections Cameroon), and with a contentious new electoral code adopted by a CPDM majority parliament in March 2012, the elections have been reduced to a two horse race between the CPDM and its French translation- RDPC.

In effect according to Dr. Tangie Fonchingong, there are a lot of exogenous factors that deprive the Opposition from starting the election race on the same block as the ruling party- disenfranchisement, nonchalant international community, low civic participation, rigging, sterile political debates occasioned by the trading of accusations of illegitimacy between the ruling party and the Opposition parties etc.

The Iceberg of Opposition Politics in Cameroon (Part 1)

 Mwalimu George Ngwane*

The resignation of Dr. Elizabeth Tamanjong as Secetary General of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) on 12th February 2015 is not a novelty in the DNA of Opposition party politics in Cameroon. And that is where the problem lies.  The resignation risks especially as she is the third Secetary General to resign since the party was founded on 26th May 1990 to be interpreted through the myopic lenses of a déjà vu, nuanced with spatial conversations of conscience or conviction buying or blighted by the current social media rebuttal of real or imaginary ruling party destruction intentions of the SDF.