Cameroon: Flawed Polls and US Observers

Some seven US ex-Congressmen who passed for observers of the October 11 presidential election in Cameroon have been accused of receiving bribes to the colossal sum of 400.000 US dollars to authenticate the polls in the face of the international community, reports Cameroon journalist Jumkondah Francis Garriba in this www.zmag.org article. The accusation emerged from Cameroon's frontline opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF. According to Mr. Nkemngu Martin, communication officer for the SDF, the so-called US observers were in Cameroon on a rescue mission. Referring to them as hungry con men, Nkemngu said their mission was to rescue "the ailing regime of incumbent president Paul Biya". Mr. Biya has been glued to power since 1982.