“Elections day will be a ghost town and no one would go out to vote, but for the politicians and their families. The Government is doing the same thing all the time and expecting to get different outcomes.”

Ndenge Godden Zama, Limbe I Electoral District Chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF, is quoted by the post as saying that government should rather prioritise a negotiated settlement of the conflict in the country’s North West and South West regions instead of convening elections.

His words: “The Government should have prioritised a negotiated settlement to end the war rather than looking for bullets as a solution. The President in his panel discussion at the Paris Peace Summit articulated the problem and even gave reason as to why English-speaking Cameroonians have, after 60 years, decided to look to another direction.

“These elections would not solve any problems and would go a long way to deepen the crisis. In my opinion, there should be an acceleration of the peace process to prepare the grounds for elections. This is a window of opportunity, maybe, a month or two before the elections. The President must now return home and use it wisely lest more peril would befall the Cameroon.”

Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, Trade Unionist and diehard SDF Militant in Limbe holds that it is not feasible to hold elections in the troubled regions.

Hear him: “As one who has been observing the political space in which we are, I do not find it feasible for any elections to take place in this kind of situation. If somebody really loves this country, local elections are elections that involve everybody; even grandmothers in the villages will have to partake in these two elections, the youths are concerned.

“We have a socio-political tension in the Northwest and Southwest. We have a state of insecurity where we have two belligerents dictating the political space for the day. The civilian politician has no space; be you a CPDM Section President or an SDF District Chair, all of us are in the same soup. These persons cannot carryout campaigns normally. So when you convene an election like this, those who have to come up with a list, how are they going to carry out campaigns in Limbe? There are areas in Limbe, where, if the belligerents occupy the space, no other person can go there. So, I expected the Government to try to implement the recommendations of the National Dialogue by passing a bill in Parliament that will amend the Constitution and a text of application as per the Special Status, so that the contents can be implemented instead of calling for elections,” Mbene told The Post.