Renowned human rights advocate and President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, has sharply condemned what he describes as the “biggest electoral scam of the century” following the recent election results from Cameroon’s North West and South West regions.
In a forthright interview, Barrister Balla, widely known for his outspokenness on issues affecting Cameroon’s Anglophone communities expressed deep outrage over official results that showed overwhelming victories for President Paul Biya in regions ravaged by an eight-year armed conflict.
According to official tallies, the ruling party secured over 80 percent of the votes in the North West and more than 60 percent in the South West. For Barrister Agbor Balla, these figures are not only implausible but also a “cruel insult” to a population that has endured years of violence, displacement, and repression.
“It is a fass. It's the biggest scam that has happened in this century,” he said. “In the history of electioneering, this would go down as the biggest in the history of humankind. If you were to equate this to crimes, it would rise to the level of electoral genocide.”
A Crisis of Credibility
Balla’s remarks reflect growing skepticism about the credibility of elections conducted in the Anglophone regions, where security concerns, mass displacement, and voter intimidation have long compromised political participation.
Entire communities have been uprooted since the crisis began in 2016, with many schools closed, villages burned, and thousands seeking refuge in neighbouring Nigeria or elsewhere.
“People have been displaced from their homes, arbitrarily arrested, detained, and forced into exile,” Balla lamented. “Yet we are told that these same people voted massively for those who caused their suffering. It is unfathomable.”
The barrister’s denunciation was also aimed at what he described as a network of complicit elites, local officials, traditional rulers, and politicians who allegedly facilitated the manipulation of results to maintain favour with the central government.
“These are people who are thieves, covered with lies and fraud,” he declared. “They are using deceit as an honour, fighting only to maintain their position in government at the expense of the people.”
“Dishonourable” Celebrations
Adding to his indignation, Balla criticized those celebrating the declared results, calling their jubilation a mockery of the suffering endured by Anglophone communities.
“It’s embarrassing and shameful,” he said. “They dare to have a party and celebrate. What are they celebrating? Theft and scamming. They should be hiding their heads in shame rather than celebrating a stolen victory openly.”
A Voice for Justice
Barrister Agbor Balla has long been one of Cameroon’s most prominent human rights voices. As President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, he has advocated tirelessly for peace, dialogue, and accountability amid the ongoing conflict. A lawyer by training and a survivor of arbitrary detention, he remains a critical voice in the struggle for justice and reconciliation in Cameroon’s troubled Anglophone regions.
While his endorsement of Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a political figure once seen as capable of bridging divides, sparked mixed reactions, Agbor Balla insists that his motivation has always been to seek a path toward ending the conflict and restoring dignity to the people.
“I believed he could do something to end this crisis,” Balla noted. “But what we’ve witnessed instead is an electoral charade that insults the memory of those who have suffered.”
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