ELECAM plans proximity registration in 2016

Since the start of the annual revision of the voters’ registers  on January 2, 2016, as stipulated in Article 74 (2) of the Electoral Code, elections management body, ELECAM, has set its objective clear to do better in 2016 by registering the largest number possible. In this vain, the Director General of Elections, Abdoulaye Babale said during the launching of the revision exercise in Yaounde for the Centre Region, on Monday January 11, 2016, that proximity registration will be carried out to attain the objective of 2016. He did not however quantify what the objective is.

In 2015, about 287, 000 Cameroonians registered on the electoral list nationwide, figures the Director General  of Elections is bent on increasing this year. “We are approaching six million registered voters on the electoral list and it is incumbent to do better than we did in 2015. The objective is to get as many Cameroonians who have fulfilled the conditions to register on the electoral list. What we are going to do is to conduct a proximity campaign in order to reach the largest number as possible”, Abdoulaye Babale stated.

Apart from the door-to-door campaign, ELECAM also intends to use social groupings, traditional rulers and the media to sensitize the public for their objective of massive registration to be attained. However, the target for 2016 is not yet set but the Director General of Elections assured that the target would be made known after his contact tour to different regions. The tour, he added, would permit him to know the realities in the field and the capacity of the Council branches to attain the target that will be announced.

According to Abdoulaye Babale, the distribution of voters’ cards is also a major preoccupation of ELECAM in 2016. For the effective distribution of the cards, the elections management body will introduce an innovation of using mobile phone numbers, email addresses to contact owners of the cards as well as publish approximate dates for the availability of the cards.