What does it mean when everyone already knows the results of an election months, or even years, before it occurs? The citizens of Cameroon, a country in Central Africa, expect the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) to win elections despite widespread, continuous reports of electoral corruption/manipulation, fraud, and voter intimidation/suppression.[1] President Paul Biya has won eight terms and been in power for almost 38 years, calling himself an “architect of liberalism,” who brought democratization, prosperity, and political freedoms to the masses.[2] Yet, in examining recent election trends, it is clear that Cameroon under Biya is a case of an authoritarian regime adept at employing a democratic veneer that the international community can no longer believe/ignore.
This blog post starts with an analysis of the 2018 presidential election and an evaluation of the 2020 elections, then explains Cameroon’s status as an authoritarian regime, moves on to its veneer of democracy (in conjunction with the elections) and the insufficient responses of the international community, and finally, ends with concluding remarks.
2018 Presidential Election:
In 2018, Biya won the presidential election with 71.28% while the opposition leader Maurice Kamto of Cameroon’s Resistance Movement received 14% of the vote.[3] Overall voter turnout was 54% —every presidential election for the last 20 years has had less turnout than the election before, demonstrating a steady, decreasing trend (from 1997 on).[4] In some areas, turnout was as low as 1%, particularly due to the Anglophone crisis, a civil war stemming from decades of growing resentment by the English speaking minority.[5] This ongoing separatist movement that arose in 2017 has given Biya and the government justification to quell any anti-government protests and legislation, jail and/or kill alleged separatist leaders, move polling stations, reduce the amount of polling stations across the Anglophone South-West and North-West regions, tamper ballots directly, and threaten voters with violence, all to deter turnout and maintain power.[6] Unsurprisingly, many polling stations were closed or closely monitored by soldiers; voter turnout in Anglophone regions was only 10%.[7] And, there were various reports of ballot tampering, including unsigned results sheets and stolen votes.
2020 Elections:
Most recently, Cameroon held parliamentary elections together with municipal elections in February, even though the parliamentary elections were initially set to be held in 2018.[8] But Biya, through the Senate and Parliament, managed to delay it for a year. Then, in 2019, reports were leaked that Biya was trying to delay the election again so both parliamentary and municipal elections would occur at the same time. The connotation was clear: it would be easier to “strategically harass and manipulate” concurrent elections in his favor.[9] Unsurprisingly, the CPDM won 139 of the 167 seats, preserving its majority.[10] The election was met with widespread violence from the battle between the separatists and state security forces. Armed separatists called for a boycott of the election, burned property, threatened voters, and kidnapped over 100 people, while state forces also carried out military operations that killed civilians and destroyed homes.[11]
Democracy or Autocracy?
American political sociologist Larry Diamond explains that a simple definition of democracy is free, fair, and competitive elections, and, most conceptions of democracy involve some iteration of this criteria.[12] Alas, Cameroon is anything but a democracy as Biya has: intimidated opponents, restricted media access, obstructed voter registration, exploited government funds on incumbents, packed electoral commissions, and kept rivals off the ballot, in what American political scientist Nancy Bermeo has termed “strategic harassment and manipulation” of elections.[13] This is one sign of democratic erosion, referring to the incremental changes that shift representative democracies toward authoritarianism; but, the theory presupposes a healthy, functional democracy existed to begin with.[14] Thus, while the theory does not directly apply to Cameroon, since Cameroon became an authoritarian single-party state within six years of its independence and has largely remained so, the signs of erosion with reference to elections are relevant and applicable because autocracies like Cameroon pretend to be democratic, and employ strategies that mimic an eroding democracy.[15] While Cameroon arguably falls far on the authoritarian side of the hybrid-regime spectrum, it attempts to position itself closer to the democratic side through a variety of measures (as will be discussed), such as specifically boasting free, fair, and competitive elections.[16]
Veneer of Democracy and International Response:
Cameroon acts as if it has been upholding democratic norms and is not ensnared in a civil war that has displaced 679,000 people, claimed 3,000 lives, and left 600,000 children without education.[17] This is due to some combination of the international community purposely ignoring the signs of Biya’s authoritarian regime, and buying into Biya’s words and strategies that maintain the veneer. In 2002, Diamond asserted that prolonged presidential tenure, where presidents are “re-elected,” is a sign of authoritarian hegemony; he mentions Cameroon and Biya, who at that point had been in power for 20 years.[18] The international community was/is continuously aware of the decreasing political rights and civil liberties of Cameroon’s citizens for quite some time, including election fraud. In recent years, the African Union and dominant Western powers released statements condemning the human rights abuses in Cameroon, but no tangible, constructive measures have been taken to alleviate Biya’s autocratic regime and the crises stemming from it.[19]
In 2018, The Washington Post published “Cameroon is melting down and the US could care less.”[20] The Norweigan Refugee Crisis published “Cameroon tops list of most neglected crises” for 2018, and it topped the list again in 2019.[21]
Biya himself has kept up this image by a long-term strategy of funding PR firms, propagating propaganda, and restricting journalism access to the country.[22] American historian David Wallechinsky explains Biya, annoyed with international criticism, actually paid six ex-U.S. congressman to certify his 2004 election as free and fair, and therefore democratic.[23] In his opinion, Biya is credited with staging uncredible elections that justify his reign, what he calls a “creative innovation in the world of phony elections.” [24]
One example of Biya’s propaganda is his description on his official website. The website explains that because of Biya, Cameroon has experienced liberty, peace, and political stability. Ironically, it states, “democracy is now common place. Elections are democratic, free and fair.”[25]
More recently, in 2019 Biya has asserted Cameroon’s democratic nature by releasing and dropping charges against hundreds of alleged opposition and separatists leaders, including Kamto who was arrested for declaring himself the winner of the 2018 election and demanding a recount.[26] He has also scheduled elections this coming December, in an effort to decentralize power and appease the separatists. It will be the country’s first regional elections where 10 regions (2 of which are heavily involved in the Anglophone crisis) will elect 90 councilors who will obtain limited authority on local issues.[27] Yet, John Fru Ndi, a key leader of a main opposition party, (who has been kidnapped twice) has stated that unless there is a ceasefire in the Anglophone regions, he will boycott the election, alluding to future conflict and violence.
Conclusion:
Cameroon’s recent elections demonstrate an autocrat increasingly employing democratic window-dressing to maintain a veneer of democracy. However, the election violence and conflict in the recent decades has made the window-dressing too painfully obvious for the international community to continue to sideline. Cameroon cannot sustain its façade of a “peaceful, democratic, just and prosperous society,” that regularly holds free, fair, and competitive elections.[28] The next steps involve serious discussions of how and what the international community can do to quell the government’s authoritarian tactics while prioritizing the safety and well-being of Cameroon’s citizens.
[1] O’Donnell, Jefcoate and Robbie Gramer. 2018. “Cameroon’s Paul Biya Gives a Master Class in Fake Democracy.” Foreign Policy. October 22, 2018. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/22/cameroons-paul-biya-gives-a-master-class-in-fake-democracy/.; “Cameroon: Election Violence in Anglophone Regions.” Human Rights Watch. Feb 12, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/12/cameroon-election-violence-anglophone-regions.
[2] “Political Vision.” Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon. Accessed September 28, 2020. https://www.prc.cm/en/the-president/political-vision.
[3] Kiven, Brenda, Sam Stone, and Ruth Maclean. “Biya wins again in Cameroon as crackdown disrupts anglophone vote.” The Guardian, October 22, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/22/paul-biya-cameroon-85-year-old-president-wins-re-election-landslide.
[4] Kiven, Stone, Maclean. “Biya wins again in Cameroon as crackdown disrupts anglophone vote.”
[5] Jefcoate and Gramer, “Cameroon’s Paul Biya Gives a Master Class in Fake Democracy.”
[6] “Cameroon.” Freedom House. Accessed September 30, 2020. https://freedomhouse.org/country/cameroon/freedom-world/2020.; Jefcoate and Gramer, “Cameroon’s Paul Biya Gives a Master Class in Fake Democracy.”
[7] Kiven and Stone and Maclean. “Biya wins again in Cameroon as crackdown disrupts anglophone vote.”
[8] Azohnwi, Atia T. “Cameroon: Mandates of Councillors, MPs to be extended until 2020.” Cameroon-Info.Net. June 19, 2019. http://www.cameroon-info.net/article/cameroon-mandates-of-councillors-mps-to-be-extended-until-2020-345594.html.
[9] Bermeo, Nancy. “On Democratic Backsliding.” Journal of Democracy 27, no. 1 (2016): 8.
[10] “Biya’s party maintains grip on parliament as Cameroon election results announced.” Radio France Internationale. Februaury 28, 2020. https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20200228-biyas-party-maintains-grip-parliament-cameroon-election-results-announced.
[11] “Cameroon: Election Violence in Anglophone Regions,” Human Rights Watch.
[12] Diamond, Larry, “Election Without Democracy: Thinking About Hybrid Regimes.” Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2 (2002): 21.
[13] Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” 8, 13; Hyde, Susan D. “Democracy’s backsliding in the international environment.” Science 369, Issue 6508 (2020): 1192-1194.
[14] Hyde, “Democracy’s backsliding in the international environment,” 1192-1194.
[15] Mokam, David. “The Search for a Cameroonian Model of Democracy or the Search for the Domination of the State Party: 1966-2006.” Cadernos de Estudos Africanos 23 (2012): 85-108, https://journals.openedition.org/cea/533.
[16] “Cameroon: Paul Biya’s 2020 message to youths.” Journal du Cameroun.com, February 20, 2020, https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/cameroon-paul-biyas-2020-message-to-youths/.
[17] “Cameroon: Election Violence in Anglophone Regions,” Human Rights Watch.
[18] Diamond, Larry, “Election Without Democracy: Thinking About Hybrid Regimes,” 32.
[19] Kiven, Gabriel Ngah & Hendricks, Cheryl. “African Union needs a more robust response to conflict in Cameroon.” The Conversation. March 2, 2020. https://theconversation.com/african-union-needs-a-more-robust-response-to-conflict-in-cameroon-132449.; “Cameroon’s Worsening Anglophone Crisis Calls for Strong Measures.” International Crisis Group. October 19, 2017. https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/cameroon/130-cameroon-worsening-anglophone-crisis-calls-strong-measures.
[20] Muvunyi, Fred. “Cameroon is melting down — and the United States couldn’t care less.” The Washington Post. November 1, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/11/01/cameroon-is-melting-down-and-the-united-states-couldnt-care-less/.
[21] “Cameroon tops list of most neglected crises.” Norweigan Refugee Council. June 4, 2019. https://www.nrc.no/news/2019/june/cameroon-tops-list-of-most-neglected-crises/.; Day, Marcus. “This Country’s Humanitarian Emergency Was Named 2020’s Most Neglected Crisis.” Via News. Last Accessed September 30, 2020. https://vianewsglobal.com/story/as-coronavirus-shuts-down-east-africa-thousands-now-flee-their-homes-after-unprecedented-flooding-b47sp.
[22] Jefcoate and Gramer, “Cameroon’s Paul Biya Gives a Master Class in Fake Democracy.”
[23] Wallechinsky, David. “The World’s Worst Dictators.” HuffPost. Last modified May 25, 2011. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-worlds-worst-dictator_b_28679.
[24] Wallechinsky, “The World’s Worst Dictators.”
[25] “Political Vision.” Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon.
[26] “Cameroon: Election Violence in Anglophone Regions,” Human Rights Watch.
[27] “Cameroon announces elections in December, despite unrest in anglophone regions.” France 24 August 9, 2020. https://www.france24.com/en/20200907-cameroon-s-president-paul-biya-announces-first-regional-elections-in-december.
[28] “Cameroon: Paul Biya’s 2020 message to youths.”
I was incredibly surprised to see the 10% voter turnout rate in parts of Anglophone Cameroon. I think this is likely some of the lowest voter turnout that we have witnessed anywhere in the world. I think it would be interesting to analyze or consolidate election watching information to truly see which countries or specific regions of countries have the lowest voter turnout.
Biya’s takeover of the government and “veneer of democracy” is so complete even with political crises, little tangible international action is taken to counter his powers. Reading this article made me think about whether the international community doesn’t take more drastic measures because there isn’t enough geo-political significance of intervening or putting pressure on the government, or if the veneer of democracy is strong enough to allow the international community to turn a blind eye. Regardless, like you mentioned the six congressmen paid to certify his elections were fair in 2004 certainly show the latter.
I’m particularly fascinated by his takeover and funding of the press. I’d be curious to see whether any local or opposition or even neutral press remains and how they engage with Biya. Here is also a report of journalists being killed in custody http://www.innercitypress.com/cameroon28unguterrescollusion060420.html . This would also be an interesting statistic to study to trace democratic erosion.
What strikes me about this article is just how similar the situation in Cameroon is to what has been happening in Benin. Even while they are supposed to have an election soon, the current President Talon is basically guaranteed to win through a process of eliminating the other competitors and using COVID as an excuse. I think an important idea that you develop here is the idea of a “veneer” of democracy being integral to an authoritarian leader keeping control. It also strikes me that there has been a steady downturn of voter turnout in Cameroon. In Benin, the election turnout was fairly stable but had a sharp decrease when the current President was elected because the people felt it was illegitimate and unfair. Is there a specific reason why the people are not voting as often in Cameroon? Also, to what degree do you think COVID-19 will exacerbate the issue?
I’m curious about why the Cameroonian crisis has been especially neglected by the world. One possible answer is the fact that the US and France are both looking inward and not bringing attention to this crisis. Under President Trump, the US has withdrawn from many global conversations and focused less on diplomacy and international development. Only the most politically relevant crises receive attention in the US, such as the Uighurs and Hong Kong in China, civilian casualties in Yemen, and Syrian refugees. Even with these crises in the past four years, the US’s response has been weak and attention remained inward. In France, intervention in Africa has become unpopular. Isolationist political movements, such as the Rassemblement National, gained popularity. Even though Marine Le Pen lost the presidential election, these nationalist sentiments remain popular. Another factor contributing to this neglect is the “veneer of democracy” that Biya has constructed. Cameroon is an example of the mischaracterization that elections equal democracy. There is a pattern of Western countries only criticizing autocratic leaders who are plainly autocratic. Since Biya is paying former US congress members to certify elections as free and fair and publicizing that Cameroon is a democracy, there is not much pressure from the international community for the state to reform. The lack of journalism due to repression in the country means that there is little public criticism. Western development agencies primarily respond to visible failures. They are not likely to draw attention to a democratic failure that is not being scrutinized by journalists and citizens or that does not have a political benefit for them. However, it is important to remember that foreign interference is not good for democracy, and the government should be responsive to Cameroonians not Western states.