ELECAM Getting Ready With Materials

#Presidential

The elections and referendum organising, managing and supervising body is working to ensure a hitch-free October 7, 2018 presidential election.

Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) is turning full cycle to ensure success in the October 7, 2018 presidential election, the first the body will be organising after the coming into force of Law N° 2012/001 of 19 April 2012 relating to the Electoral Code amended and supplemented by Law N° 2012/017 of 21 December 2012.

Regional Delegates of ELECAM whose mission is to ensure the effective functioning of the body on the field are now implementing the directives they had in Yaounde last week during separate consultations with the Electoral Board and the Directorate General of Elections in ELECAM.

The Director General of Elections, Erik Essoussè in a chart with Cameroon Tribune disclosed that at the central level, they are finalising the cleaning of electoral registers in order to know the exact number of registered voters for the presidential poll. 

By the time voters were called to the polls for the October 7 presidential election, ELECAM had registered 6, 468, 844 voters within the country and 13,061 in the Diaspora, the Director General of Elections disclosed. 

The Electoral Code in Section 98 (1) provides that, “Every polling station shall have the electoral registers of those eligible to vote. One of such registers shall be used for electors to enter their signatures. One list shall be posted up at the polling station.”

The final list of registered voters will certainly help ELECAM to come out with the final list of polling stations as at the moment there are 24,991 of them within the national territory and 56 in the Diaspora. According to the Electoral Code in Section 96 (1), “The Directorate General of Elections shall draw up the list of polling stations for every council.” 

Mr Essoussè concerning the production and distribution of voter cards said, at the National Electoral Biometric Centre in Yaounde, the cards are being produced with about 200,000 of them produced daily. The voter cards are immediately taken to the field where they are distributed.

The publication of the list of candidates retained for the presidential election expected by August 8, 2018, will usher in new activities for ELECAM. Section 88 (1) of the Electoral Code states that, “The General Directorate of Elections shall, for every candidate, party or list of candidates running in the election, print a number of ballot papers equivalent to the number of electors registered, plus one quarter thereof, as well as campaign ballot papers.” 

It is also incumbent on Elections Cameroon to produce and transport ballot boxes to the various polling stations, adapted polling boots and other necessary material for the conduct of the poll. ELECAM is aware of the daunting responsible and is taking all the necessary measures for the October 7 poll to be materially successful.