ABSTRACT
Impasse is the major theme, but it considers the chances for democratic transition and consolidation. As in 1992, disputes compromised the results, and entrenched uncertainty and impasse, including a discrepancy between Ministry of Territorial Administration's published results and the corresponding local reporting agents’ figures. May 1997 election looked like an improved springboard for some restored semblance of Bayart’s hegemonic project and Ngayap’s ruling class, if the rules of the electoral game and condition of impasse remained in force for the election later in the year. Given the impasse, 19931997, it takes the long term optimist’s leap of faith about the Social Democratic Front's character and mobilization potential, and civil society’s, over the short term realist’s reading of the evidence to believe that Cameroon will move toward democratic transition and consolidation without a heavy, perhaps convulsive cost. The chapter concludes by returning to a survey of the parties, their leadership, conduct, and prospects as of 1997.
