CPDM reorganisation results released amidst allegations of corruption

The Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPDM, Jean Nkueté, has finally released the much-awaited results of the 2015 reorganisation of the basic organs of the party amidst allegations of widespread corruption.

Nkueté among other things dumped hundreds of petitions that were received concerning cases of corruption, fraud, intimidation, intrigues, arbitrary rejection of lists, vote rigging, disenfranchisement and ineligibility, amongst others.

In its January 12 edition, the CPDM newspaper, L’Action containing the reorganisation results was only restricted at the Party’s General Secretariat in Yaounde.

The restriction runs contrary to the number of service notes Nkueté signed, demanding that the reorganisation results should be given the widest publicity. Analysts think Nkueté’s decision to limit the sale of the January 12 L’Action newspaper is a strategy to limit access to the official results.

Nkueté and his advisers fear that if the controversial results are widely publicised, there would be tension, protest and bitter reactions by CPDM militants. As at Saturday, January 16, 2016 most CPDM militants in Douala and other areas were still awaiting the official results.

The release of the results has triggered confusion as reported in The Post No. 01692. There was total confusion and tension in Kumba over the allegation that the final reorganisation results were released in the party’s newspaper yet the paper was not available in Kumba.

The Post has gathered that after the completion of the reorganisation exercise in the field, the Central Supervisory Commission, which was headed by the CPDM Scribe, met at the party’s headquarters in Yaounde. The Commission discussed and agreed that all results from the field which were not contested be validated while cases that were petitioned be handed to the Sub-Commission on Electoral Disputes, headed by the Deputy Secretary General of the CPDM, Gregoire Owona.

Nkueté convened a meeting of the Central Supervisory Commission to examine and validate the decisions of the Sub-Commission on Electoral Disputes, prepare and forward the final results to the party’s National Chairman Paul Biya for signature.

Owona, who was President of the Far North Regional Commission for the Reorganisation exercise, cancelled seven election results for gross irregularities and ordered for a re-run.

In the wake of this cancellation, a group of CPDM elite led by Fabian Monkam (Board Chairman of SCDP), mounted pressure on Nkueté not to cancel any results or order for a re-run. They reportedly argued that the cancellation of some results on grounds of gross irregularities in the party’s internal elections would paint a negative image to the international community about the CPDM.
The group also reportedly argued that cancelling some results would undermine the integrity of members of the commissions that organised the contested elections.

To them, the election re-runs would still end in disputes and petitions for further re-runs. They insisted that the best thing to do was to forget about the petitions and adopt the results as were declared in the field.

The Post, however, leant that what influenced members of the group to fight against cancellation of election results was corruption. Many CPDM elite, who contested the elections and used their money to win, reportedly rushed back to Yaounde after their controversial victories with thick envelopes to oil the palms of some influential persons at the Party’s Secretariat to protect their victories.

Central Supervisory Commission Sidelined

It is widely reported that for reasons best known to him, Nkueté sidelined the 2015 Central Supervisory Commission of the Reorganisation exercise and worked with a group that was against the cancellation of election results.

Nkueté thus ignored all the petitions that poured in from different parts of the country and adopted the results as they were declared in the field. The CPDM Secretary General is said to have ignored even his Deputy, who was for the cancellation of petitioned results in cases where there was concrete evidence to prove that gross irregularities marred the elections.

Nkueté even validated the seven election results that Owona cancelled in the Far North Region. He also ignored two members of the CPDM Political Bureau from the Northwest Region, Regina Mundi and Fon Aneng, who met him to stress the need for the party hierarchy to ensure that justice is given a chance in the examination of all petitions filed from the Northwest Region.

Nkueté reportedly kept the two party bigwigs waiting for over an hour in his waiting room on the pretext that he was in a meeting. Mundi and Fon Aneng got frustrated and left.