By Dibussi Tande
Thanks to its stand-off with government and the sympathy generated by the Bamenda incident, the SDF was able to successfully present itself as a credible alternative to the ruling CPDM. The party’s launching also mobilized political activists, particularly those in exile, who began thinking of creating other political parties.
On March 16, 1990, barely six days after the Biya regime insisted that multipartyism was not illegal in Cameroon, John Fru Ndi, a Bamenda-based bookseller, and Dr. Siga Assanga, a lecturer at the University of Yaounde, submitted an application with the Mezam divisional office seeking authorization for a political party called the Social Democratic Front (SDF).
Although the application was in direct response to the government’s declaration that multipartyism was not proscribed in Cameroon, the SDF had actually been in gestation months before the Yondo affair.
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