The Quagmire of Cameroon's Political Parties

This article is an attempt to show that political parties in Cameroon have a lot of work to do in order to revamp their profile. This work should be rigorously and efficiently done in terms of accountability, leadership, field activities, training/education, democratic practices, social issues, infrastructure, fundraising activities, party cohesion and unity, the evaluation of results and activities, the situation of vulnerable groups as well as pre-electoral /electoral/ post-electoral activities. Furthermore, substantial work should also be done in order to come up with a legal instrument which grants the head of the opposition a well-defined status.

In order to improve the situation of Cameroon’s political parties as concerns the twelve points mentioned above, and as regards other issues, the following should be taken very seriously:

• The need for political parties to always resort to experts in political issues whenever the need to do so arises;
• The need for opposition  parties to always unite their forces whenever the need arises;
• The need for the ruling party and opposition parties to always concert so as to resolve their common problems;
• The need to drastically reduce the number of political parties in Cameroon;
• The need to seriously rationalize political party activities so as to combat popular, true and negative perceptions about political parties;
• The need for all electoral stakeholders to offer fair electoral chances of success to all political parties by taking claims on electoral irregularities very seriously and by endeavouring to overcome them;
• The need for political parties to work with successful foreign political parties and learn from their experience;
• Etc.