25, March 2023
CPDM Crime Syndicate: Biya’s party wins all Senate seats 0
The party of President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for more than 40 years, unsurprisingly won all 70 seats in the indirectly elected Senate on March 12, the Constitutional Council announced Thursday.
The 90-year-old omnipotent head of state must also appoint 30 more senators in the next 10 days.
The Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais (RDPC) has even strengthened its total domination of the upper house of parliament since the opposition had seven seats in the outgoing Senate.
The CPDM lists, which came out on top in each of Cameroon’s ten administrative regions, won all the seats in each of these regions, according to the results read out by Clement Atangana, the president of the Constitutional Council, during a ceremony broadcast live on CRTV, the public television.
In the ten regions of this central African country of some 28 million inhabitants, 10 parties had presented candidates to 11,134 electors: regional councillors, municipal councillors and traditional chiefs.
The CPDM was the only party to present lists in all ten regions. It controls 316 of Cameroon’s 360 communes.
In the National Assembly, Mr. Biya’s party and its allies also have an overwhelming majority of 164 deputies out of 180, elected in February 2020.
The only issue at stake in the senatorial elections is the election, once the 30 additional senators are appointed by the head of state, of the president of the Senate, who is constitutionally responsible for the interim in case of vacancy at the head of power. But he must organise a presidential election within 120 days, in which he is not allowed to run.
The incumbent, Marcel Niat Njifenji, 88, who is very close to Mr Biya, has held the post for 10 years.
The “succession” of Paul Biya is on everyone’s lips. In case of death or incapacity of the president, the CPDM will have to designate a successor who will have every chance of winning the presidential election. But no personality, even among those closest to Mr. Biya, dares to step forward publicly.
Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982 with an iron fist, regularly accused by the UN and international NGOs of ruthlessly repressing the opposition in the streets and a bloody separatist rebellion in the two western regions populated mainly by the English-speaking Cameroonian minority.
Source: Africa News
24, April 2023
US: President Biden to announce re-election bid 0
After months of teasing, President Joe Biden is expected finally to announce his bid for a second term Tuesday, defying lukewarm polls and, at 80, boldly pushing what were once considered age boundaries for one of the planet’s most stressful jobs.
Neither the White House, the Democratic Party nor the president himself have confirmed he will announce but multiple US media reports, citing unnamed sources, say the move will come early Tuesday in a video address.
This would fall exactly four years after Biden announced his candidacy for the 2020 election in which he defeated Donald Trump. That too was made in the low-key format of a video, as was Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign announcement.
By contrast, Trump formally launched his bid for a second term in 2019 at one of his signature rallies.
The 76-year-old Republican has also already announced his bid for a 2024 comeback and is the strong frontrunner to be his party’s nominee, despite having been criminally indicted and remaining under multiple other investigations on serious allegations.
Biden’s Tuesday schedule currently features an address on the economy at a Washington hotel conference room.
While not a campaign event, the scheduled theme — “how his investing in America agenda is bringing manufacturing back, rebuilding the middle class, and creating good-paying union jobs” — is clearly set to be at the heart of the Democrat’s 2024 message.
In the evening, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit Washington’s Korean War Memorial along with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee, as they kick off a state visit — and give Biden an opportunity to highlight his foreign policy record.
Low enthusiasm
History shows that as the incumbent, Biden would have an immediate advantage.
Trump, dragged down by his management of the Covid-19 pandemic and fears among Democrats that he was a threat to democracy, was the first sitting president in three decades to lose re-election.
Biden is also presiding over a powerful post-pandemic economic revival — usually a key factor in deciding presidential elections.
However, Biden faces unique headwinds. Chief among these is worry over his age.
He’d be 82 when he began his second term and 86 when he left office. At 80, he is already the oldest person ever in the Oval Office.
An official medical report this year found Biden to be physically in good condition.
But the president’s noticeably slow walk — notwithstanding his habit of throwing in a few steps at a jog — and his frequent moments of becoming tongue tied during public speaking have spooked even supporters.
An NBC News poll released over the weekend found that 70 percent of Americans, including 51 percent of Democrats, believe he should not run for a second term. Forty eight percent cited concerns over his age as the main reason and another 21 percent cited that as a minor reason.
Among those raising strong doubts over Biden’s fitness to serve another grueling four years after this term ends was The New York Times editorial board last week.
“The president also needs to talk about his health openly and without embarrassment, and to end the pretense that it doesn’t matter,” it said.
Asked about the issue, Biden always replies “watch me” — explaining that voters should look not at his age but his record of delivering several historic investment bills, leading a coalition to support Ukraine against Russian invasion, and other achievements during a drama-filled first term.
Source: AFP