Editing History of Cameroon (section)

===Civil War and repression===
The UPC, which had demanded a full break with France and many of whom espoused [[Marxist]] or other leftist ideologies, were not satisfied with Ahidjo's rule and close cooperation with the French and did not lay down their arms at independence and sought to overthrow Ahidjo's regime which they viewed as too subservient to France and some, but not all, espoused overtly [[Marxist]] views. Ahidjo requested continued French assistance in suppressing the UPC rebels in what became known as the [[Bamileke War]] after the region where much of the fighting took place. The UPC was ultimately defeated with government forces capturing the last important rebel leader in 1970. During the intervening years, Ahidjo used emergency powers granted due to the war and the fear of further ethnic conflict to centralize power in himself. He implemented a highly centralized and authoritarian government that used arbitrary police custody, prohibition of meetings and rallies, submission of publications to prior censorship, restriction of freedom of movement through the establishment of passes or curfews, and a prohibition on trade unions to prevent opposition. Anyone accusation of "compromising public safety" was handled outside traditional criminal process - without the right to a lawyer or any appeal. Sentences of life imprisonment at hard labor or death were numerous and executions were often public.

In 1966, opposition parties were banned and Cameroon became a [[one-party state]].<ref name=modo /> On 28 March 1970 Ahidjo was re-elected as president with 100% of the vote and 99.4% turnout.<ref>[[Dieter Nohlen]], Michael Krennerich & Bernhard Thibaut (1999) ''Elections in Africa: A data handbook'', p183 {{ISBN|0-19-829645-2}}</ref> [[Solomon Tandeng Muna]] became vice president. In 1972, a referendum was held on a new constitution, which replaced the federation between East and West with a unitary state called the '''United Republic of Cameroon''' and further expanded the power of the president. Official results claimed 98.2% turnout and 99.99% of votes in favor of the new constitution.<ref>[http://africanelections.tripod.com/cm.html Elections in Cameroon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903053954/http://africanelections.tripod.com/cm.html |date=3 September 2011 }} African Elections Database</ref>   Although Ahidjo's rule was authoritarian, he was seen as noticeably lacking in charisma in comparison to many post-colonial African leaders. He didn't follow the anti-western policies pursued by many of these leaders, which helped Cameroon achieve a degree of comparative political stability, retain Western investment, and see fairly steady economic growth.