The Impact of the Re-introduction of Multi Party Politicc in Cameroon.

 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.