Presidential

Post-electoral Petition: Hearing Enters Decisive Stage Today

Par AMINDEH Blaise ATABONG
18 oct. 2018 11:09
0 Likes

The Constitutional Council will pass its judgment on Kamto’s petition at 6pm while the case brought to the Council by Joshua Osih will be heard as from 10am.

The verdict of the petition filed by presidential candidate, Maurice Kamto, calling for the partial cancellation and re-run of the presidential poll in some seven regions of the country will be known today. The petition, whose hearing began on Tuesday October 16, got tense yesterday and ran into the late hours of the evening before Clement Atangana, President of the Constitutional Council, adjourned the case for judgment today at 6pm.

During yesterday’s hearing at the precincts of the Constitutional Council headquartered at the Yaounde Conference Center, Kamto’s college of lawyers led by Barrister Emmanuel Simh prayed the Council to annul the October 7 poll in the Adamawa, North, Far North, East, South West, North West and South Regions for what they termed “multiple irregularities”.

The defence counsels of the presidential candidate of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) faulted Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) for going ahead to place Akere Muna’s ballot papers at polling stations, despite the fact that Akere had withdrawn from the race, threw his support behind Kamto and asked ELECAM to discontinue his candidacy.

Kamto’s lawyers also made claims that their candidate’s ballot papers ran short in a number of polling stations, contrary to Section 100(1) of the Electoral Code which stipulates that ballot papers of candidates have to be more than the number of registered voters in each polling station.

They also cited as argument, the late disbursement of campaign funds, the reduction of campaign time by the Minister of Territorial Administration, the non-respect of posting campaign flyers and posters by one candidate, the chasing away of their polling station representatives, the non-accordance of security to Kamto, amongst others. Kamto’s petition principally indicted candidate Paul Biya of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, ELECAM and the administration.

In response to the petition filed by Kamto, a representative of the Minister of Defence said the role of th...