Opposition party ends boycott of state bodies

Cameroon's main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party has ended a boycott of parliament and municipal councils in protest against "flawed legislative and local government elections". The end of the boycott was announced by SDF leader John Fru Ndi in a 12 July communique. A group of party cadres, however, led by SDF First Vice Chairman Saidou Maidadi Yaya accused Fru Ndi of taking a unilateral decision. They also accused him, in a communique, of reneging on resolutions adopted on 6 July by the SDF decision-making organ, the national executive committee and on a 2 July declaration in which six opposition parties including the SDF had called for a boycott of the National Assembly and municipal councils. The cadres called for an emergency meeting of the SDF executive committee in Yaounde on 19 July - the day the Supreme Court is scheduled to proclaim the results of the legislative election - despite the fact that the committee planned to meet on 24 July in Bamenda, the main town in Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest Province. The elections were held on 30 June. Opposition parties claimed they were marred by abuses such as voter intimidation and the use of stuffed ballot boxes. Some opposition parties had called for the polls to be annulled and had urged Cameroonians to hold street protests. They also called for a boycott of the vote count. The response to the protest call was lukewarm and all political parties ended up participating in the work of the vote-counting commission, which ended on Monday in Yaounde. The boycott suffered another blow on 9 July when SDF councillors took up their seats on municipal councils, along with representatives of the ruling Rassemblement democratique du peuple camerounais (RDPC) and opposition parties that had rejected the boycott call. Fru Ndi however said participation in parliament and local government should not prevent the pursuit of "street demonstrations until further notice, in keeping with the recommendations of the national executive committee of the party". Observers said this seemed paradoxical since the RDPC and SDF concluded an agreement in Bamenda on 12 July to preserve peace in Cameroon. The observers wondered whether the SDF would emulate the Union nationale pour la democratie et le progres (UNDP) which joined the government after concluding an agreement with the RDPC in 1997. UNDP grassroot activists have been calling on their leaders to resign from the government. The party has seen its representation in the National Assembly dwindle from 68 at the country's first multiparty legislative elections in 1992 to 13 in the outgoing parliament and, according to reliable sources, fewer than 10 following the 30 June polls. The SDF is also reported to have fared badly, obtaining just about 40 of the country's 336 municipalities, including 30 of the 31 in the Northwest Province, reliable sources said. They said the ruling party gained control of about 280 municipalities and won 150 of the 180 seats in parliament.