Choves Loh and Regina Liengu Etaka
23 July 2007
Yaoundé — Pressmen in the North West rose early on July 22 in search of election scoops that were rare to find.
In effect, the politically conscious and vulnerable people of the province rose to expectation with 498.819 expected to have voted in 2069 polling stations between 8am and 6pm. It was generally peaceful with good weather helping matters but for reports of tension in Santa. It all started with North Westerners respecting the Sabbath as they first went worshipping in respective congregations. That perhaps explains why voting in most polling stations started after the scheduled time.
By 10am governor Koumpa Issa and 52 others had voted in G.S Up station. The Community Development garage A polling station welcomed the opposition SDF leader, Ni John Fru Ndi at 10:10am. Tse Peter Angwafo, chairman of the polling station said voting started by 8:05am and Fru Ndi was number 120 to exercise his civic rights soon after which he told the press that he had voted the SDF before decrying organizational lapses which according to him does not dignify the nation.
He was bitter about ink which was not indelible and said SDF ballot papers for the Mbesa area in Boyo were discovered in the Ijim forest. The D.O of Belo sub division, Lienwotue Patrick later acknowledged that a pack of SDF ballot papers and others fell from the car that transported voting materials to Mbesa on July 21 but that by 4;30am on July 22 a gendarme officer was dispatched with adequate materials to serve all the parties in Mbesa.
Away from Bamenda, the Santa area was on the focus with pockets of tension, wrangling and protests with some three people reported to have attempted to stuff ballot boxes with CPDM papers in the two Potato Store polling stations in Mbei village. Security was stepped up in Santa with the forces of law and order spotted virtually everywhere following earlier threats to jeopardize peace with a special eye on voters alleged to have been ferried from other divisions and provinces to inflate votes.
The D.O., Chekem Abraham was conspicuously guarded by gendarmes as he went from one polling station to the other settling problems of absentee polling agents, protests by inhabitants whose names did not feature on voter registers especially in G.S Njong. Ndap Peter was the first to vote at G.S Santa B polling station by 8:50am am while NEO and some civil society organizations were also around turning full circle in attempts to check ambulant voters.
Elsewhere in Tubah it was hitch free but for Emmanuel Forbujong, an SDF council aspirant who doubled as a polling agent in the 1st polling station at the Bambili Cooperative before he was identified and replaced. In Boyo division Cameroon Tribune spotted the SDO, Haman Mamoudou cris crossing the area to ensure serenity while the people of Mbengwi also rose to expectation as they exercised maturity and discipline in voting with APF leader and Parliamentary candidate, Bernard Muna lauding the efforts of the government for organizing free and fair elections .In all, the day was calm until 6pm when curtains dropped on polling stations.
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