By Yvonne Soppo Disso
The Union des Populations du Cameroun, UPC party held its annual congress on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at the Hilton Hotel in Yaounde, under the theme, "transparency and truth". The sole agenda was to reorganize the party in preparation for the 2007 municipal and legislative elections. The party re-elected Mr Frederick Kodock as the Secretary General and de jure head of the party. Mr Kodock currently serves in government as Cameroon’s Minister for Planning, Programming and Regional Development, with his party the UPC having a minor representation in parliament. The UPC, one of two hundred political parties in Cameroon, resolved during its just concluded congress to grab more seats in the forthcoming elections. The UPC was founded in 1948 by Felix Moumie, Um Nyombe, Ernest Ouandie and Abel Kingue, with a then emphasis on nationalism. Today, the UPC under Frederick Kodock, in his trademark red-shirt symbolizing the blood of slain UPC heroes and martyrs in the 1950s and 60s liberation struggle, stands out as a unifying party voting on issues in parliament irrespective of party discipline. Despite a plethora of parties, in which some are household and village-level based, the UPC stands out as one of the few of seriously organized political groupings with a national vision and mission. Political parties in Cameroon that have held congresses include the CPDM, SDF, UNDP and UPC, jostling for hearts and minds of Cameroonians in preparation for the municipal and parliamentary elections in mid 2007, that political consultants view would be the most hotly contested in the nation’s history.
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The report fails to mention that the UPC is today a splintered party
Posted by: Ambe Johnson | January 02, 2007 at 09:57 PM