Voters Registration : Political Parties Hardly Perceptible

#Politique

The revision of the electoral registers will end this August 31, 2020 in accordance with the provision of the Electoral Code.

After the twin election of Members of the National Assembly and municipal councilors on February 9, 2020, the elections organizing institution in Cameroon, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), re-launched the revision of the electoral registers on April 9, 2020.

Political parties that are the main beneficiaries in the electoral process as elections constitute the gate way to get to power are not really perceptible on the field with the hitherto mobilization for the registration operation. Council branches of Elections Cameroon in charge of registering potential voters are on their part, mobilized for the registration operation despite the current coronavirus pandemic health crisis.

The Yaounde III Council branch of ELECAM is one of those in which all measures have been taken to register potential voters while respecting the restrictive measures put in place to fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ELECAM Council branch head, Hélène Onana Ngono who was effectively at work on Monday, August 3, 2020 told Cameroon Tribune that they work every day with limited staff considering that the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Erik Essousse instructed rotation between workers to limit the chances of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

As for voters registration proper, she said, there is no affluence partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and also because the twin legislative and municipal elections just took place. Hélène Onana Ngono disclosed that there are some weeks in which they would register two or three potential voters and others in which no potential voter would come.

The upcoming election in Cameroon is the regional council election whose voting is through indirect suffrage considering that the electoral college are municipal councilors and traditional rulers.

In the Yaounde II and Yaounde VI Council branches of ELECAM, the staff were also present ready to register potential voters. The official in charge of Administration and Finance in the Yaounde VI Council, Mohamadou Moussa, in the absence of the branch head, told Cameroon Tribune that they work every day. He said one potential voter was enrolled in the electoral register on August 3, 2020 morning and further disclosed that averagely 15 to 20 potential voters register in a week.

Political party leaders are expected to create awareness and mobilize their members, supporters and sympathizers to enroll in the electoral registers to increase their chances of winning all elections conducted through universal suffrage.

They are also expected to send their representatives to the Commissions charged with the Revision of Electoral Registers set up in all council branches of ELECAM. The real absence of affluence and interest in the revision of the electoral registers is largely due to the silence of political parties. The few party officials seen on the field now mostly do mobilise their supporters against the COVID pandemic and little or nothing is said about enrollment into the electoral registers.