Cameroon Election - ELECAM’s Director May Have Faulted The Final Election Results

Cameroonians are skeptically awaiting the results of the October 7 polls, 11 days after voters cast their votes for the next president of the central African country. 

But as many continue to wait, the elections fever are high after a document leaked online claiming the incumbent President Biya has won the election with 71% of the votes. But the authenticity of that document should now be seriously questioned.

Speaking at the Constitutional Council on Wednesday October 17, Elections Cameroon Director General, Essousse Erik, denied claims put forth by opposition candidates that the body did not properly manage the election, and there was widespread fraud. Speaking in a tone that sometimes generated a lot of laughter in the hall, Mr Erik also stated the total number of votes cast in the North West and South West regions which contradicts what is in the leaked document.

Cameroon Election - ELECAM’s Director May Have Faulted The Final Election Results

And the total number given by Mr Erik actually reflects the total number of votes for Paul Biya in the North West and South West regions in the leaked document. Mr Erik told the Constitutional Council that, notwithstanding the effect of the ongoing conflict in the South West and North West Region which deprived several voters from going to the polls, 45,000 people voted in the South West region, while approximately 27,000-people cast their votes in the North West region.
That number however is closer to the the total number of votes cast for President Paul Biya in the both regions, than the total number of votes casts for all candidates, in the document circulating online. In that document Biya wins 77.69% percent (45,819 votes) of the total votes from the South West Region of Cameroon, while Kamto gets 3.45% (with 2089 votes). In the North West region Biya gets 81.76% (27,229 votes) of the total votes, compared with Kamto’s 3.6% (1198 votes) of the total votes.

The total number of votes casts for all candidates in the North West region in the document is 33,311, and 58,981 for the South West region. If the document is authentic then the Director of ELECAM may have misled the Constitutional Council by giving the total number of votes for Biya in both regions, as the overall number of votes cast for all candidates. Or maybe in light of this information, we should dismissed the authenticity of the leaked documents.

This story has been updated. The statement was made by the Director of ELECAM, nor the Deputy Director of ELECAM, Abdul Karimou.

Source - natimesnews.com