The long awaited unitary congress of the Union des populations du Cameroun, UPC finally took place at the Complexe de la Capitale in Yaounde on June 7, 2014 with the election of Professor Louka Basile as the new Secretary General and Onana Victor as the new President of the Steering Committee.

According to the Press Officer of the UPC, Mbon Samuel, the President- elect of the Steering Committee will have to convene a bureau meeting during which modalities will be discussed and other positions in the bureau filled.

The sixth ordinary and exceptional congress was co-chaired by Reverend Pastors Simon Bolivar Njami and Samuel Bikoi.

The Yaounde congress was the logical outcome of the consultation meeting of last week between the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Réne Emmanuel Sadi and four members of the Provisional Committee of the UPC that included Pierre Sende, François Zogning, Bernard Wandji and Basile Louka.

The path to the election of the unitary executive bureau of the UPC was rough as there were 12 candidates for the post of Secretary General and 10 candidates for the post of President of the Steering Committee who were all voted through a uninominal system.

The real hurdle and impasse in the election process was to have an electoral college as the over 3,000 delegates for the congress were ready to vote.

Through the ingenuity of the co-chairpersons of the congress, five delegates from each of the 72 sections of the party finally formed the electoral college of 352 voters.

The whole process was also characterized by disgruntlement with attacks and counter- attacks of hiring voters heard here and there.

The daunting task of the new Secretary General and President of the Steering Committee will be to rally all UPC supporters together to build a more united party that will face future political challenges.

The task will not however be easy for one the provisional bureau members set to bring back unity in the party Hon.

Robert Bapooh Lipot was not part of the congress.

In an earlier press conference in Yaounde he advocated for the re-organisation of the grassroots structures of the party before the unitary congress thereby rejecting, in an outright manner, the already programmed congress.

Another challenge will be to accommodate and enable candidates who did not win positions