Some angry youth of the CPDM in Momo I-Mbengwi yesterday laid siege to the party house, briefly taking hostage some members of the Divisional Electoral Commission.
The hostages included the Vice Chancellor of the Bamenda University-Tafah Edward Edokat and some polling agents for what they decried as gross injustice, manipulation and rejection of their list by some party cohorts of their opponents against their preferred candidate, Asanji Joseph.
Following a tense standoff, the matter was immediately referred to the Regional Electoral Commission in Bamenda, chaired by the Vice president of the Reorganisation Commission, Ngafeeson Emmanuel Bantar.
The commission called for a rerun of the elections on Tuesday, November 24 with the two lists to faceoff.
Forbang Achu Roland, Press and Communication Officer of the list headed by Asanji Joseph, said the cancellation of the election was a victory for justice.
He accused the Section Electoral Commission of being “biased, corrupt and fraudulent.”
He said the electoral list of eligible voters did not match that of militants in the various subsections and blames the former section president, Tembi Jacob, of trying to modify the list to suit his supporters and sympathizers and to eliminate those he think are opponents of the list he supports.
Tangu Humphrey, head of the list that was cruising to victory unopposed before the election was cancelled, was left furious with the decision of the Regional Electoral Commission. He questioned why the same commission will admit a list they had earlier rejected.
“To me, it is not just. I don’t see justice because they have not given me the reason why a list that was rejected has been reinstated so I think there is something somewhere that I really cannot understand,” he said.
Tangu Humphrey, supported by the Mayor of Mbengwi, said he does not rule out the possibility of seeking redress against what he termed injustice. He, however, accepted to run in Tuesday’s poll.
He blamed his opponents for allowing the youth who ransacked the party’s secretariat in Mbengwi and said he has officially filed a complaint with the police.
Events in Mbengwi reportedly spiraled out of control after some youth learned that the list of their candidate Asanji Joseph had been cancelled.
They stormed the party secretariat to demand that the list be reinstated but it was already too late and the matter could only be addressed at the regional level. The rerun will now take place on Tuesday.
