Augustin Frédéric Kodock
Encyclopedia
Augustin Frédéric Kodock (born March 1, 1933- Deceased October 24, 2011) was a Cameroon
ian politician who has been Secretary-General of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon
(UPC-K faction) since 1991. He worked in Cameroon's state administration during the 1960s and then worked at the African Development Bank
through the 1970s. After a stint as head of Cameroon Airlines
in the mid-1980s, he participated in the beginnings of multiparty politics in the early 1990s, becoming Secretary-General of the UPC. Allying himself with President Paul Biya
, he was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development from 1992 to 1994 and then as Minister of State for Agriculture from 1994 to 1997. Subsequently he was again Minister of State for Agriculture from 2002 to 2004 and Minister of State for Planning from 2004 to 2007.
of Cameroon. Following independence in 1960, he became Deputy Director of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance in 1961; he was then posted in Douala
for about six months as Director of External Economic Relations and subsequently was Director of Economic Orientation. He also coordinated the preparation of Cameroon's first five-year plan, and from 1963 to 1965 he served in the government as Secretary of State for Finance; he was then appointed as Director of Litigation and Studies at the Ministry of Territorial Administration in 1965. Later, he worked at the African Development Bank
from 1968 to 1980 and was appointed as Technical Adviser to Cameroon's Ministry of Finance in 1982. He was President Director-General of Cameroon Airlines
(CAMAIR) from May 1984 to September 1985, and he participated in the founding congress of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement
(RDPC), held in Bamenda
in 1985, as a member of its Transport Commission.
he was elected to the National Assembly
as a UPC candidate in Nyong-et-Kelle constituency. In the National Assembly, he became President of the UPC Parliamentary Group
.
President Paul Biya
, who was facing strong opposition in 1992, sought to improve his position by dividing and weakening the opposition. Two weeks before the 11 October 1992 presidential election
, the UPC Parliamentary Group signed an agreement to support Biya on 28 September 1992. Kodock's decision to support Biya was an important development, as it gave Biya a political boost at a crucial moment and buttressed his precarious parliamentary majority. By drawing Kodock over to his side, Biya may have also hoped to fuel factionalism within the UPC and thereby weaken the party as a political force. Ultimately, Biya narrowly won the presidential election with a plurality of the vote, according to the controversial official results; subsequently he appointed Kodock to the government as Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development on 27 November 1992.
As Secretary-General of the UPC, Kodock was a firm supporter of the unitary state
, which was created by President Ahmadou Ahidjo
in 1972; he believed that national unity, facilitated by a strong central government, was crucial to the development of Cameroon. He denounced the notion of federalism
, which was favored by some Anglophone Cameroonians; in 1993, he said that "linguistic fractioning brought about by colonisation cannot determine the future course of our country. The return of Anglophone Cameroon and the unification are the greatest achievements of Cameroon since independence." At around the same time, he filed a defamation suit against staff at two newspapers, La Nouvelle Expression and Galaxie, for reporting that an official at his ministry was embezzling money. Continuing to serve in the government, he was moved to the position of Minister of State for Agriculture on July 21, 1994.
The UPC was divided by internal disagreements during the 1990s. Kodock's moderate faction, which was allied to the RDPC, emerged from the intraparty struggles as the dominant faction, although it was opposed by the party's more radical members. In 1996, the UPC split into different factions, one of which was led by Kodock and another by Ndeh Ntumazah. Kodock's faction held a congress at Makak in 1996, at which he was re-elected as Secretary-General. He was also re-elected to the National Assembly from Nyong-et-Kelle constituency in the 1997 parliamentary election
and was the only UPC candidate to win a seat. After the election, he was excluded from the government that was formed on December 7, 1997, in which a rival UPC leader, Henri Hogbé Nlend
, was named Minister of Scientific Research.
In the June 2002 parliamentary election
, Kodock was again re-elected to the National Assembly from Nyong-et-Kelle constituency; the UPC list of three candidates in Nyong-et-Kelle received a narrow majority over the RDPC, with 50.80% of the vote. Following the election, Kodock briefly presided over the National Assembly prior to the election of its bureau due to his status as the oldest member of the National Assembly at age 69. He was then appointed as Minister of State for Agriculture in the government named on August 24, 2002, thus returning to the government after five years of absence from it. He and the UPC-K supported Biya in the October 2004 presidential election
, citing Biya's accomplishments as President. After that election, he was moved to the position of Minister of State for Planning in the government named on December 8, 2004.
Speaking at a conference in Limbe on 1 September 2006, Kodock discussed the lack of economic development in Cameroon. He described a visit to South Korea
; according to Kodock, South Korea and Cameroon had similar GDPs in the 1960s, but South Korea had since then made vast strides, developing a prosperous and modern economy, while Cameroon, still deeply impoverished, was no longer even remotely comparable. He stressed the importance of unity and cooperation among Cameroonians and the need for "a new spirit to build this country". Recalling that the UPC had been founded with three goals—independence, national unity, and the achievement of a high standard of living—Kodock noted that the last of those goals was still distant, while emphasizing the importance of national unity in achieving it. He also bemoaned Cameroon's reliance on imports and its failure to take advantage of its own resources, and he said that Cameroon needed to find the will to develop its economy.
At a workshop held to assess progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals
on December 5–7, 2006, Kodock said that he saw no real hope that Cameroon could meet the goals by 2015. He was re-elected as Secretary-General of the UPC-Kodock faction at a congress on December 30–31, 2006; he also gained stronger powers at the congress.
, saying that he believed it was important that a minister in the government obtain popular legitimacy through election to a parliamentary seat. However, Kodock was defeated according to initial results. He filed a request for the election in his district, Nyong-et-Kelle (which he described as his party's "natural stronghold"), to be cancelled, alleging fraud on the part of RDPC candidates. In August, the Supreme Court accordingly cancelled the election in Nyong-et-Kelle, giving Kodock another opportunity to win the seat when the election was held again.
Kodock remained Minister of State for Planning until he was dismissed from the government in a cabinet reshuffle on September 7, 2007. Kodock then denounced Biya for allegedly killing democracy. It was believed that Kodock was excluded from the government because his support had fallen to such a level that it was no longer politically useful to include him; his age may have also been a factor (he was then 74 years old). In the re-vote held in Nyong-et-Kelle on September 30, the UPC list headed by Kodock was defeated by the RDPC list, receiving about 40% of the vote against 55% for the RDPC, according to provisional results. UPC factionalism was considered a factor contributing to the defeat, with Kodock's rival Henri Hogbé Nlend calling for people to vote for the RDPC; additionally, some in the UPC reportedly declined to vote for Kodock because they felt it was time for new leadership in the party. Kodock appealed to the Supreme Court for the RDPC list to be disqualified and for the revote to be annulled, but the Supreme Court rejected his request on October 10.
Kodock criticized the National Elections Observatory's generally positive report on the 2007 election, which was published on July 31, 2008; according to Kodock, the election in Nyong-et-Kelle had been blatantly rigged through vote-buying, intimidation, and violence.
Although summoned to appear before State Counsel at the Mfoudi High Court on June 17, 2008, as part of an investigation regarding embezzlement of public funds, Kodock refused to appear, denouncing the investigation as a smear campaign against him. At a press conference on January 30, 2009, Kodock said that 2008 had been a disappointing year for the economy, which he attributed to poor governance. He criticized the country's leaders for allegedly enriching themselves at the expense of the general population and failing to make productive use of money made available through debt cancellation. He also accused the government of assisting Hogbé Nlend's UPC faction as a means of weakening the party. However, he refrained from denouncing the composition of the newly-appointed Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) electoral commission, unlike some opposition leaders, saying that ELECAM should be given a chance and judged on its performance.
On April 10, 2009, at a celebration marking the 61st anniversary of the UPC's founding, Kodock called for party unity; he described the UPC as "the immortal soul of the Cameroonian people" and warned that those dividing it were "cursed". On the same occasion, he stressed the need for political dialogue and said that patriots should mobilize and work for the improvement of living standards in Cameroon. He also said that "the only way of honoring the sacrifices of the founding fathers of the UPC is to make Cameroon a model in the Central African Sub-region".
Following the death of veteran UPC leader Ndeh Ntumazah in early 2010, Ntumazah's family refused to allow Kodock to speak at his funeral. Although Kodock and Ntumazah had once been rivals within the UPC, Kodock described Ntumazah "a long-time friend" and "a comrade of the struggle", and he said that he was insulted by the family's decision to exclude him. Ntumazah's family, on the other hand, argued that the decision was appropriate because Kodock had ignored Ntumazah during the years of illness that preceded his death; they claimed that Kodock had never phoned to inquire about Ntumazah's health.
At Nyong-et-Kelle on 30 April 2011, amidst continued UPC factionalism, Kodock was designated as his faction's candidate for the October 2011 presidential election
. A few months later, he was taken to South Africa
to be treated for illness. Kodock was ultimately unable to stand as a presidential candidate because the authorities rejected his application.
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
ian politician who has been Secretary-General of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon
Union of the Peoples of Cameroon
The Union of the Peoples of Cameroon is a political party in Cameroon.-History:UPC was founded on April 10, 1948, at a meeting in the bar Chez Sierra in Bassa. 12 men assisted the founding meeting, including Charles Assalé, Léonard Bouli, and Guillaume Bagal. The majority of the participants were...
(UPC-K faction) since 1991. He worked in Cameroon's state administration during the 1960s and then worked at the African Development Bank
African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in Africa...
through the 1970s. After a stint as head of Cameroon Airlines
Cameroon Airlines
Cameroon Airlines was an airline from Cameroon, serving as flag carrier of the country. Based in Douala, it operated scheduled services within Africa, as well as to Europe and the Middle East out of its hub at Douala International Airport, with an important second network focus on Yaoundé Nsimalen...
in the mid-1980s, he participated in the beginnings of multiparty politics in the early 1990s, becoming Secretary-General of the UPC. Allying himself with President Paul Biya
Paul Biya
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been the President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982. A native of Cameroon's south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, serving as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime...
, he was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development from 1992 to 1994 and then as Minister of State for Agriculture from 1994 to 1997. Subsequently he was again Minister of State for Agriculture from 2002 to 2004 and Minister of State for Planning from 2004 to 2007.
Background and administrative career
Kodock was born in Mom, Makak District, Nyong-et-Kellé Department, in the Centre ProvinceCentre Province
The Centre Region occupies 69,000 km² of the central plains of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the north by the Adamawa Region, to the south by the South Region, to the east by the East Region, and to the West by the Littoral and West Regions. It is the second largest of...
of Cameroon. Following independence in 1960, he became Deputy Director of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance in 1961; he was then posted in Douala
Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Province. Home to Cameroon's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport, it is the commercial capital of the country...
for about six months as Director of External Economic Relations and subsequently was Director of Economic Orientation. He also coordinated the preparation of Cameroon's first five-year plan, and from 1963 to 1965 he served in the government as Secretary of State for Finance; he was then appointed as Director of Litigation and Studies at the Ministry of Territorial Administration in 1965. Later, he worked at the African Development Bank
African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in Africa...
from 1968 to 1980 and was appointed as Technical Adviser to Cameroon's Ministry of Finance in 1982. He was President Director-General of Cameroon Airlines
Cameroon Airlines
Cameroon Airlines was an airline from Cameroon, serving as flag carrier of the country. Based in Douala, it operated scheduled services within Africa, as well as to Europe and the Middle East out of its hub at Douala International Airport, with an important second network focus on Yaoundé Nsimalen...
(CAMAIR) from May 1984 to September 1985, and he participated in the founding congress of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement
Cameroon People's Democratic Movement
The Cameroon People's Democratic Movement is the ruling political party in Cameroon.-History:Previously known as the Cameroon National Union, which had dominated Cameroon politics since independence in 1960, it was renamed in 1985...
(RDPC), held in Bamenda
Bamenda
Bamenda, also known as Abakwa and Mankon Town, is a city in northwestern Cameroon and capital of the North West Province. The city had a population of 269,530 at the 2005 Census, and is located 366 km north-west of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé...
in 1985, as a member of its Transport Commission.
Political career during the 1990s
In 1991, Kodock was elected as Secretary-General of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) at its Nkongsamba congress, and in the March 1992 parliamentary electionCameroonian parliamentary election, 1992
Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 1 March 1992. They were first multi-party elections for the National Assembly since 1964, although they were boycotted by the Social Democratic Front and the Cameroon Democratic Union. The result was a victory for the ruling Cameroon People's...
he was elected to the National Assembly
National Assembly of Cameroon
The National Assembly is the parliament of Cameroon. It has 180 members, elected for five-year terms in 49 single and multi-seat constituencies....
as a UPC candidate in Nyong-et-Kelle constituency. In the National Assembly, he became President of the UPC Parliamentary Group
Fraction (politics)
A parliamentary group, parliamentary party, or parliamentary caucus is a group consisting of members of the same political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or a city council. Parliamentary groups correspond to party caucuses and conferences in the...
.
President Paul Biya
Paul Biya
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been the President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982. A native of Cameroon's south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, serving as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime...
, who was facing strong opposition in 1992, sought to improve his position by dividing and weakening the opposition. Two weeks before the 11 October 1992 presidential election
Cameroonian presidential election, 1992
A presidential election was held in Cameroon on 11 October 1992. It was the first presidential election since multi-party politics had been legalised, and it was also the first to feature more than one candidate. Incumbent Paul Biya won with 39.98% of the vote. Voter turnout was 71.9%.The 1992...
, the UPC Parliamentary Group signed an agreement to support Biya on 28 September 1992. Kodock's decision to support Biya was an important development, as it gave Biya a political boost at a crucial moment and buttressed his precarious parliamentary majority. By drawing Kodock over to his side, Biya may have also hoped to fuel factionalism within the UPC and thereby weaken the party as a political force. Ultimately, Biya narrowly won the presidential election with a plurality of the vote, according to the controversial official results; subsequently he appointed Kodock to the government as Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development on 27 November 1992.
As Secretary-General of the UPC, Kodock was a firm supporter of the unitary state
Unitary state
A unitary state is a state governed as one single unit in which the central government is supreme and any administrative divisions exercise only powers that their central government chooses to delegate...
, which was created by President Ahmadou Ahidjo
Ahmadou Ahidjo
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was the first President of Cameroon from 1960 until 1982.-Early life:Ahidjo was born in Garoua, a major river port along the Benue River in northern Cameroun, which was at the time a French mandate territory...
in 1972; he believed that national unity, facilitated by a strong central government, was crucial to the development of Cameroon. He denounced the notion of federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
, which was favored by some Anglophone Cameroonians; in 1993, he said that "linguistic fractioning brought about by colonisation cannot determine the future course of our country. The return of Anglophone Cameroon and the unification are the greatest achievements of Cameroon since independence." At around the same time, he filed a defamation suit against staff at two newspapers, La Nouvelle Expression and Galaxie, for reporting that an official at his ministry was embezzling money. Continuing to serve in the government, he was moved to the position of Minister of State for Agriculture on July 21, 1994.
The UPC was divided by internal disagreements during the 1990s. Kodock's moderate faction, which was allied to the RDPC, emerged from the intraparty struggles as the dominant faction, although it was opposed by the party's more radical members. In 1996, the UPC split into different factions, one of which was led by Kodock and another by Ndeh Ntumazah. Kodock's faction held a congress at Makak in 1996, at which he was re-elected as Secretary-General. He was also re-elected to the National Assembly from Nyong-et-Kelle constituency in the 1997 parliamentary election
Cameroonian parliamentary election, 1997
Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 17 May 1997. The result was a victory for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, which won 116 of the 180 seats, including seven constituencies in which the result had originally been cancelled by the Supreme Court due to serious...
and was the only UPC candidate to win a seat. After the election, he was excluded from the government that was formed on December 7, 1997, in which a rival UPC leader, Henri Hogbé Nlend
Henri Hogbe Nlend
Henri Hogbe Nlend is a Cameroonian mathematician, university professor, former government minister and presidential candidate.-Biography:...
, was named Minister of Scientific Research.
Return to the government
On January 13, 2001, Kodock and various other party leaders participated in an unauthorized protest in Yaoundé against the National Election Observatory, believing that it would not be an impartial body. The protest was dispersed by security forces, and Kodock, along with the other party leaders, was detained for five hours. According to Kodock, the Observatory's neutrality was doubtful because its members were all appointed by President Biya.In the June 2002 parliamentary election
Cameroonian parliamentary election, 2002
Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 30 June 2002. The result was a victory for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, which won 149 of the 180 seats. In 17 constituencies the result was cancelled by the Supreme Court due to irregularities and the election re-run on 15...
, Kodock was again re-elected to the National Assembly from Nyong-et-Kelle constituency; the UPC list of three candidates in Nyong-et-Kelle received a narrow majority over the RDPC, with 50.80% of the vote. Following the election, Kodock briefly presided over the National Assembly prior to the election of its bureau due to his status as the oldest member of the National Assembly at age 69. He was then appointed as Minister of State for Agriculture in the government named on August 24, 2002, thus returning to the government after five years of absence from it. He and the UPC-K supported Biya in the October 2004 presidential election
Cameroonian presidential election, 2004
The 2004 Cameroonian presidential election took place in Cameroon on 11 October 2004. Incumbent President Paul Biya was easily re-elected in an election which the opposition claimed had seen widespread electoral fraud.-Background:...
, citing Biya's accomplishments as President. After that election, he was moved to the position of Minister of State for Planning in the government named on December 8, 2004.
Speaking at a conference in Limbe on 1 September 2006, Kodock discussed the lack of economic development in Cameroon. He described a visit to South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
; according to Kodock, South Korea and Cameroon had similar GDPs in the 1960s, but South Korea had since then made vast strides, developing a prosperous and modern economy, while Cameroon, still deeply impoverished, was no longer even remotely comparable. He stressed the importance of unity and cooperation among Cameroonians and the need for "a new spirit to build this country". Recalling that the UPC had been founded with three goals—independence, national unity, and the achievement of a high standard of living—Kodock noted that the last of those goals was still distant, while emphasizing the importance of national unity in achieving it. He also bemoaned Cameroon's reliance on imports and its failure to take advantage of its own resources, and he said that Cameroon needed to find the will to develop its economy.
At a workshop held to assess progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...
on December 5–7, 2006, Kodock said that he saw no real hope that Cameroon could meet the goals by 2015. He was re-elected as Secretary-General of the UPC-Kodock faction at a congress on December 30–31, 2006; he also gained stronger powers at the congress.
Political activities since 2007
Kodock ran again as a UPC candidate for re-election to the National Assembly in the July 2007 parliamentary electionCameroonian parliamentary election, 2007
A parliamentary election was held in Cameroon on 22 July 2007, with some polls held again on 30 September 2007. 1,274 candidates stood for the 180 seats in the National Assembly, with 41 parties participating...
, saying that he believed it was important that a minister in the government obtain popular legitimacy through election to a parliamentary seat. However, Kodock was defeated according to initial results. He filed a request for the election in his district, Nyong-et-Kelle (which he described as his party's "natural stronghold"), to be cancelled, alleging fraud on the part of RDPC candidates. In August, the Supreme Court accordingly cancelled the election in Nyong-et-Kelle, giving Kodock another opportunity to win the seat when the election was held again.
Kodock remained Minister of State for Planning until he was dismissed from the government in a cabinet reshuffle on September 7, 2007. Kodock then denounced Biya for allegedly killing democracy. It was believed that Kodock was excluded from the government because his support had fallen to such a level that it was no longer politically useful to include him; his age may have also been a factor (he was then 74 years old). In the re-vote held in Nyong-et-Kelle on September 30, the UPC list headed by Kodock was defeated by the RDPC list, receiving about 40% of the vote against 55% for the RDPC, according to provisional results. UPC factionalism was considered a factor contributing to the defeat, with Kodock's rival Henri Hogbé Nlend calling for people to vote for the RDPC; additionally, some in the UPC reportedly declined to vote for Kodock because they felt it was time for new leadership in the party. Kodock appealed to the Supreme Court for the RDPC list to be disqualified and for the revote to be annulled, but the Supreme Court rejected his request on October 10.
Kodock criticized the National Elections Observatory's generally positive report on the 2007 election, which was published on July 31, 2008; according to Kodock, the election in Nyong-et-Kelle had been blatantly rigged through vote-buying, intimidation, and violence.
Although summoned to appear before State Counsel at the Mfoudi High Court on June 17, 2008, as part of an investigation regarding embezzlement of public funds, Kodock refused to appear, denouncing the investigation as a smear campaign against him. At a press conference on January 30, 2009, Kodock said that 2008 had been a disappointing year for the economy, which he attributed to poor governance. He criticized the country's leaders for allegedly enriching themselves at the expense of the general population and failing to make productive use of money made available through debt cancellation. He also accused the government of assisting Hogbé Nlend's UPC faction as a means of weakening the party. However, he refrained from denouncing the composition of the newly-appointed Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) electoral commission, unlike some opposition leaders, saying that ELECAM should be given a chance and judged on its performance.
On April 10, 2009, at a celebration marking the 61st anniversary of the UPC's founding, Kodock called for party unity; he described the UPC as "the immortal soul of the Cameroonian people" and warned that those dividing it were "cursed". On the same occasion, he stressed the need for political dialogue and said that patriots should mobilize and work for the improvement of living standards in Cameroon. He also said that "the only way of honoring the sacrifices of the founding fathers of the UPC is to make Cameroon a model in the Central African Sub-region".
Following the death of veteran UPC leader Ndeh Ntumazah in early 2010, Ntumazah's family refused to allow Kodock to speak at his funeral. Although Kodock and Ntumazah had once been rivals within the UPC, Kodock described Ntumazah "a long-time friend" and "a comrade of the struggle", and he said that he was insulted by the family's decision to exclude him. Ntumazah's family, on the other hand, argued that the decision was appropriate because Kodock had ignored Ntumazah during the years of illness that preceded his death; they claimed that Kodock had never phoned to inquire about Ntumazah's health.
At Nyong-et-Kelle on 30 April 2011, amidst continued UPC factionalism, Kodock was designated as his faction's candidate for the October 2011 presidential election
Cameroonian presidential election, 2011
A presidential election was held in Cameroon on 9 October 2011. President Paul Biya stood for another term; he was able to do so due to a constitutional amendment, passed in 2008, that eliminated term limits...
. A few months later, he was taken to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
to be treated for illness. Kodock was ultimately unable to stand as a presidential candidate because the authorities rejected his application.