The Opposition and their Performance of Electoral Power in Cameroon (1992 – 2007)

The return to multiparty politics in Cameroon in 1990 was met with reluctance and resistance by the regime. Triggered by the events of 26th May 1990, that led to the defiant launching of an Opposition party (Social Democratic Front – SDF), multipartyism and eventually Opposition parties became institutionalized following the Law of Association of 19th December 1990 (Law No. 90/056).

In spite of this reform to accommodate multipartyism, the main kernel of democratic transition to put enabling structures in place evaded the political establishment in Cameroon.

Unlike other African Countries like Benin (1990), Mali (1991), Zaire now Democratic Republic of Congo (1991) and South Africa (1994) that planned a democratic transition, the leadership of Cameroon resisted then reluctantly gave in to a form of transition whose outcome fell below general expectations.

Such a context only encouraged the emergence of a new elite in the political arena, next to the old ones who switched over, for the occasion, to the virtues of political pluralism (Tidjani Alou 2002: 28). The setting up of Constitutional Conferences, Sovereign National Conferences and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions as modes of transition was meant to provide new political and economic paradigms suited to the demands of pluralism. As discussion forums, transition modes served as the balm of national reconciliation and catharsis as well as avenues to put in place reforms and structures that will change the qualities of lives of the masses.

When President Paul Biya therefore declared on 27th June 1991 at the National Assembly that “Je l’ai dit et je le maintiens, la conference nationale est sans objet pour le Cameroun (I insist that the National Conference is baseless in Cameroon), Cameroonians were stunned into both rage and revolt.

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© George Ngwane