Across Africa, there are
signs that democratic gains of 1990 to 1994 have eroded. In a few countries,
democratization has been reversed as military forces have overthrown elected governments,
spelling an end to brief democratic experiments and a return to authoritarian
rule. Elsewhere, new democracies survive, but elected rulers lapsed back into
manipulating political rulers in order to consolidate their personal hold on
power. In these states, big-man democracy is emerging in which the formal
trappings of democracy coexist with neo -patrimonial political practice.
African multi party systems have shortcomings which include weak opposition
parties, intimidation of opposition supporters by incumbent governments, and an
absence of leadership turnover.
After two decades, observers
of Africa politics like Larry Diamond and Richard Joseph argued that the continent
was o a cusp of its second Liberation (Diamond 1992, 1993). The rising popular
demand for political reform across Africa, holding of multi –party elections,
the alternation of power I several countries and negotiations for a new
political framework led these scholars to conclude that the prospects for
democracy were high. Today these same observers are not so sure. They describe
the current democratization experience in terms of the electoral democracy.
Cameroon without any
reasonable doubt has as political, economic ad to an extent media impacts as a
result of the reintroduction of multi party politics.
Starting by knowing what
the term stands for, it is when voters enjoy guarantees of universal franchise
and equality before the law that are largely enforceable , and a plurality of
political parties free to contest elections that are largely opened. The advantages of such a definition is its
easy operationalization, as multi party elections are discrete events that hold
relatively little ambiguity even though judging freeness and fairness may in
practice prove slippery. On the other hand, to reduce democracy to the holding
of regular elections is to risk the “fallacy of electoralism” regular multi
party elections offer meaningful choices to voters but that periodically
legitimate hard-line rulers. Elections may easily coexist, for instance, with
systematic abuses of human rights or the disenfranchisement of large segments
of the population.
First things first, with a
keen look into the economic domain, it would be discovered that the
reintroduction of multi party politics in Cameroon really dealt with the
country’s economy. Looking at the rise of more than 300 political parties, it
is clear that when a party is approved to function and to take part in
elections, it is funded by the government with huge chunks of money from the country’s
coffers. This goes a long way to cripple the country’s economy. Company this to
the one party system under Ahidjo around the 70s, there was less spending and
as a result Cameroon had a flourishing economy. Cameroon therefore plunged into
an economic crisis as a result of this high government spending on these many
political parties.
Extrapolating from this, we
may say that the depth persistence ad intractability of Africa’s economic
crises has been an asset to the democratization. So has the conventional
response to the crisis namely structural adjustment because the African
varieties of SAP are so draconian that they tend to intensify poverty I the
short-run ad to exacerbate social and political tensions. The covariance of
economic crisis and the agitation for democratization has held for practically
every country in Africa, including Ghana Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Mali,
Senegal, Nigeria, Nigeria, Cameroon and others.
The 1980s, a particular low
point in the economic crisis for most countries produced a powerful surge of
demands for political and economic incorporation which was a watershed in
Africa’s quest for democratization. In Benin Republic, the economy had grown to
a halt at this and fiscal crisis of the state was so deep that the government
could no longer pay the wages of civil servants.
Another part of interest
which is equally an impact to the reintroduction of multiparty politics in
Cameroon as it is in multi party regimes is weak opposition parties. This again
drives us into the economic aspect where money Is spent year in year out on resourcefulness political parties and as a result, political parties crop up
every now and then, just to have a taste of the wealth bestowed on political
parties. In Cameroon, out of more than 300 political parties, only the SDF is
considered the only vibrant opposition party. Ahidjo, when he grounded multi
party politics had as reasons to so because of careless government spending and
saw it as a challenge which he did not want. Reintroduced in 1990, by Paul
Biya, the impacts keep growing
As an impact to the
reintroduction of multi party politics in Cameroon, we got to discover constant
intimidation of opposition supporters in Cameroon. This is true as the word
true itself as it was evident I the last September 30 twin elections where
cases of clash between supporters of CPDM and SDF, if it were a one party
system, then this would not be the case.
The lack of political will has made the
government not to put in place the right structures for democratic governance.
There has been a general demand for the government to create an independent
electoral commission to guarantee political fairness, but the plea has always
fallen on deaf ears because the government lacks the political will to
establish such an organ. Cameroon has moved from the National Elections
Observatory (NEO) to Elections Cameroon (ELECAM). The irony being that
appointment into both organs is the prerogative of the Head of State and the
person appointed cannot exercise justice and not favor the ruling party, thus
making democracy in Cameroon to be far-fetched. The government established
these bodies with the intention of legitimizing electoral consultations in
Cameroon and making the international community believe that the democratic
process in Cameroon is on the right track meanwhile the elections are always
marred with fraud and irregularities. The inability to establish an independent
electoral body in Cameroon has contributed tremendously in putting in place a
pre-mature democratic system.
After the reintroduction of multiparty
politics in Cameroon, the rulers have always put in place certain mechanisms to
ensure victory such include selective or discriminative registration of voters,
buying of voters (politics of the belly), intentional displacement of voters
and outright intimidation. Research proofs that since multiparty politics in
the 1990s, some Cameroonians have never taken part in the electoral process.
This is due to the frustrations of getting a voters’ card or due to the type of
institutions that are put in place to run elections. Since the different
political parties have their stronghold in their various regions, it is easy to
identify supporters of a particular party and victimize them. Voters’ cards are
issued out selectively and one of the criteria used to determine those who
belong to the opposition is by their name and areas of origin. For example, in
the registration process leading to the municipal and parliamentary elections
of 2007, many opposition supporters protested in different parts of the country
because they never had voters’ card. This selective registration of voters
affects opposition parties because their militants cannot vote.
The reintroduction of multiparty system
paved the way to corruption and Cameroon has been noted for its corruption
records. The corruption is not limited to embezzlement of state funds but
extends to extortion and buying of voters. It is reported that the youths are
the most concerned when it comes to this malpractice both in the rural and urban
areas. The high rate of unemployment and joblessness push the youths to collect
money and vote for the ruling party during elections.
Villagers are easily
bought with food items such as bags of rice, salt and other food items in
exchange for their votes. It is easy for the ruling party to do so because they
use state money throughout the process. Government Treasuries are usually empty
during campaigns because a huge amount of state resources is directed to
campaigns. As a result, the government uses the tax payers’ money to buy the
tax payers’ votes. This mechanism makes it difficult for the opposition parties
because of their limited financial resources and the ruling party uses state
funds to ride their political opponents.
Nevertheless multiparty
politics in Cameroon I suppose is the best for the country considering its
diversity, though the system is accompanied by so many intricacies.
It is a common saying that the future of any nation lies
in the potentials of her youths. But the conclusion is that the
quality of the youths and their manifestations depend largely on the strength
of the foundation upon which they are nurtured.
