22 March Legislative re-run in Lebialem Constituency : Polling Conducted In All Voting Centres

Polling centres were opened at Menji, headquarters of Lebialem Division in the South West Region, at 8 a.m. The first voters came along by 8.30 and the Senior Divisional Officer for Lebialem, Mungambo Ekema William, was seen casting his vote by 9.45 am at the Menji Post Office polling centre. Voting continued free of trouble in the three other polling centres of Nchenfem, Seat of Wisdom College, and Azi . These four centres lodged the 51 polling stations of Fontem Sub-Division. In Alou Sub-Division, Minister Delegate Paul Njukang Tasong cast his vote at the Mmock’Mbie polling centre. Voting continued in the 38 polling stations lodged in four polling centres of Alou Grand Stand, Mbelenka, Sub-Treasury Office Premises in Alou and Mmock’Mbie. In Wabane Sub-Division, all 52 polling stations were grouped in three polling centres of Fotang, Wabane Central and Magha.
The National President of the Cameroon Democratic Party, Benz Enow, was in Lebialem where he floated his party’s press release of 20 March resigning from the legislative competition in the constituency and throwing his party’s weight behind the ruling CPDM candidate. The CDP candidate, Mentoh Justus Teba, was however very silent afield during campaigns. When contacted, the Regional boss of ELECAM for the South West accompanied by his collaborator for Lebialem explained that the withdrawal of CDP’s candidacy dated 20 March, 2020, was late enough for 22 March polling. He added that only the central authority of ELECAM could instruct Lebialem to remove CDP ballot papers from the voting table yesterday.
During the repeat of the legislative election in Lebialem yesterday, the ELECAM stretched out to add the number of polling centres from the six last 9 February initial polls to 11 this time in the entire constituency of Lebialem. As such, Fontem Sub-Division harbours four polling centres   for 6,980 potential voters, Alou has four Centres for 7,356 registered voters and Wabane enjoys three polling centres for 7,513 registered voters. 
The SDF candidate had petitioned on grounds of limited proximity convincing the court that it was necessary to extend polling facilities closer to the voting population. Yet, it is also affected that most potential voters had fled from the four corners of Lebialem to neighbouring French speaking areas of Menoua, Moungo, Littoral, Bamboutos, Noun, and Mifi. Happily, the Dschang-Menji 45-kilometre road was recently graded to the smiles of many...