Cameroon’s main opposition leader accused President Paul Biya on Sunday of trying to prevent a free election in the central African country as voters prepare to go to the polls in a month’s time.

Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for 22 years, announced on Saturday that a presidential election would be held on Oct. 11, quashing widespread rumours the vote might be delayed.

“This regime has resolved to maintain our country in a de facto monolithic environment and prevent by all means a free and fair election,” John Fru Ndi, chairman of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), told his party faithful.

“The time has come for state-sponsored political terrorism to end in Cameroon,” he said after being selected as the SDF’s presidential candidate.

Despite political divisions, a Muslim-Christian split and dozens of tribes, Cameroon has traditionally been one of the more stable and prosperous countries in a troubled region.

Cash crops such as cocoa and coffee form a mainstay of its economy but oil exports also contribute to government revenue.

Fru Ndi, 64, has long had a frosty relationship with Biya, who came to power when his predecessor resigned through ill health and held on to it in two successive elections in 1992 and 1997, neither considered free or fair by foreign observers.

The two have never spoken, although hopes of a thaw were aroused in 2001 when Biya sent Fru Ndi a message of condolence after his mother died, a gesture seen by local media as a “remarkable positive development”.

The animosity between the two leaders dates back to 1990, when Fru Ndi defied a government order and massive troop presence in his home town of Bamenda to launch the SDF, heralding the end of 30 years of single-party rule.

The opposition is strongest in its English-speaking parts, which were once British-ruled while most of the country was run by the French after the former German colony was parcelled out after World War One.

<B>Pre-election violence </B>

The run-up to Cameroon’s elections has already been marred by violence and accusations of fraud.

An SDF district chairman in the volatile northwest – the opposition’s main stronghold – was beaten to death last month as he returned home from a heated meeting with local officials to discuss preparations for the vote.

Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement dissociated itself from the killers, saying they were “enemies of democracy” who should be brought to book. Several people were subsequently arrested.

The opposition also says its supporters have been beaten by security forces during peaceful demonstrations in the capital Yaounde as they campaigned for computerised voter registration to help prevent electoral fraud.

Fru Ndi’s nomination as SDF presidential challenger must now be voted on by the Coalition for National Reconciliation and Reconstruction (CNRR), which groups opposition parties. He is widely expected to win their approval.

<B>Tansa Musa</B>