{"id":17586,"date":"2018-10-06T09:24:44","date_gmt":"2018-10-06T09:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17586"},"modified":"2018-10-06T09:24:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-06T09:24:44","slug":"cameroon-opposition-forms-coalition-in-advance-of-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17586","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon opposition forms coalition in advance of polls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two Cameroonian opposition parties have agreed to form a coalition in an effort to dislodge six-term President Paul Biya in Sunday’s presidential polls.<\/p>\n

The announcement on Friday confirms rumours of an opposition manoeuver to try to defeat 85-year-old Biya but the new union will not include the main opposition Social Democratic Front’s hopeful Joshua Osih.<\/p>\n

Akere Muna, leader of the People’s Development Front (FDP) agreed to “withdraw his candidacy … and to support Maurice Kamto” who is the leader of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), Muna’s spokesman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Kamto’s party alleged that a “massive fraud” was under way to ensure the sitting president wins a seventh term.<\/p>\n

Kamto’s campaign chief Paul-Eric Kingue said efforts to rig Sunday’s ballot “had the blessing” of the electoral commission.<\/p>\n

“We won’t accept any result if this kind of fraud continues,” he said at a media briefing by Kamto’s MRC in the capital Yaounde.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cameroon<\/a>‘s authorities have long faced accusations of unfairly favouring Biya<\/a>, one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers, who won 78 percent of votes in the polls that took place in 2011.<\/p>\n

They were described as “flawed” by observers and the opposition.<\/p>\n

Cameroon will place a ban on internal travel by road, rail and air from 17:00 GMT on Saturday until the conclusion of voting.<\/p>\n

The borders of the central African nation of 25 million people will also be sealed 48 hours before voting day, according to a decree seen by the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

Kamto’s MRC has alleged that polling cards have been forged and that voter registration has continued despite the process being officially closed.<\/p>\n

“In 62 percent of areas, the [ruling] Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party is still adding names to the voter roll,” said Kingue. “We’re not preparing for war, but wherever there is fraud, there will be a firm response.”<\/p>\n

Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a statement that “measures have been taken … to prevent any actions that might create violence or disorder around the elections”.<\/p>\n

He added that “political figures linked to foreign interests were preparing groups of agitators to stir up violence in the event that the results don’t go their way”.<\/p>\n

The minister did not specify who he was referring to.<\/p>\n

“By attempting to spread chaos, they risk being unpleasantly surprised,” he said. The authorities would “not tolerate any disorder before, during or after the presidential vote”, he added.<\/p>\n

Biya has been in power for 35 years and now faces seven opposition contenders following Muna’s withdrawal. The opposition frontrunners are Osih and Kamto.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Cameroonian opposition parties have agreed to form a coalition in an effort to dislodge six-term President Paul Biya in Sunday’s presidential polls. The announcement on Friday confirms rumours of an opposition manoeuver to try to defeat 85-year-old Biya but the new union will not include the main opposition Social Democratic Front’s hopeful Joshua Osih.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}