Voter registration: ELECAM deploys teams to major spots

ELECAM is bent on overturning the timid registration as it has embarked on a proximity registration strategy.

More than one month into the 2015 revision of the voters roll which started on 2 January, 2015, as required by the Electoral Code, the elections management body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) has so far registered some 7,727 new voters as of 30 January 2015.

The revelation was made recently during the presentation of New Year wishes to the Director General of Elections, Mohaman Sani Tanimou. The figure indicates that the exercise is still timid weeks after it kicked off.

As at 30 January 2015, ELECAM’s database showed an overall figure of 5,597,537 registered voters in Cameroon. The revision exercise entails registration of new voters (those who have attained voting age of 20 years and those who have never registered), modifications, deletion of names of dead people and distribution of voters’ cards.

Some ELECAM Council Branch Heads, who spoke to Cameroon Tribune, stated that the exercise has been timid because they were still putting in place strategies and plans of action to be employed in the field.

Thus, most of those who registered last month were those who came to the offices. Mvondo Sylvestre Désiré of the Yaoundé III Council Branch holds that the figures are expected to increase in the days ahead as they have embarked on proximity campaigns in major roundabouts and quarters.

“The exercise is still timid, people are not coming and we cannot force them”, a staff of the Yaounde III Council Branch of ELECAM told Cameroon Tribune on Monday, February 16, 2015 during their field work at the CRADAT Roundabout in Yaounde.

By mid-day last Monday, the team at the CRADAT roundabout had registered only five new voters on the list. To her, the timid turnout is because “we are in a non-election year.”

She said they have had a few cases of those who have lost their voters’ cards but added that instructions on whether to get them registered again are still awaited from hierarchy.

One of the registered voters, 28-year-old University student, Tegantchouang Njinang Brice Quentim stated that he was encouraged to register and have a voter’s card because his peers have told him it is dangerous for a citizen to be without the card.