The SDF Petition for the Cancellation of the South West Senatorial Election “rejected”
On the 28th of March, 2018, a member of the SDF party (whose name we got as Njenje Celestin ) filed a petition to the constitutional council requesting that the 25th March, 2018 senatorial election for the entire South West region of Cameroon should be cancelled.
According to Njenje Celestin , the senatorial election for some divisions of the South West region was marred by fraud and insecurity.
Fraud in Lebialem and the attacks that marred the voting process in Bangem are some of the evidences of irregularities cited by the petitioner.
After a cross examination of the petition (which took 7 days), it was rejected by the constitutional council.
The petition was rejected on the grounds that the petitioner was not eligible to file a petition to the constitutional council which therefore nullified every evidence or fact tabled before the constitutional.
Simply put, Mr Njenje Celestine (the petitioner) was neither a candidate and didn,t seek permission from the SDF big wigs before filing that petition.
When Mr Njenje Celestine was interviewed by CRTV regarding the verdict passed by the constitutional council, this is what he said…
I consulted the stalwarts of the party and they gave me the go ahead. I have no regret as far as that is concern. The struggle for free, fair and transparent election in Cameroon continues. We don,t comment the courts decision especially when it is coming from the highest court of the land. Our feelings, our acrimony, we keep that to our selves but what we have to say is that the facts contained in that petition were so compelling, incontrovertible and watertight.
Professor Kale Kofele; the head of the SDF senatorial list also said ( during an interview) that the SDF party had a case except that the procedure was wrong. In response to the constitutional council verdict which states that the petitioner wasn’t eligible to summon the council, Prof Kofele said “we instructed the competent council before filing the petition, but it is an internal SDF matter and we shall resolve it within the party. However he hinted that there is a candidate in Yaounde who for one reason or the other didn’t hook up with the person who drafted the complaint and so didn,t sign it hence the reason why the petition was rejected.
In my opinion, the verdict passed by the constitutional council may be 100% right. Its should be noted that the petition was filed by the SDF petitioner on the 28th of March, 2018 (…barely few hours to the end of the 3 days deadline set aside for the submission of post election petitions). The above fact clearly suggest that the SDF party never wanted to file a petition to the constitutional council but suddenly/ impulsively took a decision to file a petition at the last minute hence the reason why the petition/complaint wasn’t signed by some SDF big wigs leading to the rejection of the petition.
It should be noted that the constitutional council is the highest jurisdiction of Cameroon and its verdicts cannot be appealed.
After clearing all the post election petitions, the constitutional council will release the results of the 25th March, 2018, senatorial election on Thursday the 5th of April, 2018 (i.e. today) during a plenary session presided over by the president of the constitutional council; Chief justice Clement Atangana.
Our ears are still on the ground. We shall provide you with more information on this story. Thanks for reading.
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