Municipal and legislative elections set for June

Long-delayed municipal elections will now be held on 23 June in Cameroon, along with legislative polls, Minister of State Marafa Hamidou Yaya, secretary general of the Presidential Office, announced on Thursday in a news release. The term of office of municipal councillors had expired in January 2001, five years after they were elected, but was extended twice by President Paul Biya. The government had said recently that legislators, elected in 1997 - also for five years - would not have their terms extended. The official Cameroon Tribune daily said on Friday that 67 parties had already registered for the municipal polls while 16 would participate in the legislative elections. The numbers could increase, though, since parties still have time to submit their lists of candidates to the Ministry of Territorial Administation, which is organising the elections. The polls will be monitored by the Observatoire national des élections (ONEL - National Election Observatory), a state body. The opposition had voted in parliament against the bill establishing the observatory, saying that it would be partial to the government. Other sources say it will be judged on the basis of its performance at the polls, the first that it will monitor. Independent observers from NGOs and other components of civil society are also scheduled to monitor the elections. Cameroon has a population of some 16 million but there are only around four million people registered on the voters' roll. Opposition parties say the number is too low given the size of the country. However there are no official estimates of the number of people of voting age.