By DOH JAMES SONKEY
The Chairperson of the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, Enow Abrams Egbe has declared that their elections management body is materially ready to organize municipal, legislative and regional elections should the President of the Republic convenes electors to the polls any moment from now.
He made the declaration last March 15, 2019 at the Yaounde Mont Febe Hotel while chairing the first ordinary session of the Electoral Board for the year 2019 attended by members and the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Erik Essousse as rapporteur.
Enow Abrams Egbe told reporters that “at this point in time, we are striving to perfect Cameroon’s electoral process by enriching our experience with what we witnessed in Senegal and Nigeria this year during their presidential elections.”
In his opening statement before their in-camera session dedicated to the examination and adoption of the state of finances for 2018 and the roadmap ahead of upcoming polls this year, the Chairperson of the Electoral Board admitted some irregularities observed in the organization of senatorial and presidential elections respectively of last March 25 and October 7, 2018 such as “the persistent presence of double names on the electoral register partly caused by dysfunction of biometrics kits, weak rate of participation at the polls, problem of voting rights by internally displaced persons and refugees due to the Anglophone crisis, timid implication of political parties and their weak representation in mixed commissions for vote counting despite the fact that they are the main beneficiaries of the electoral process and insufficient or deficit in education on democracy of all stakeholders in the electoral process etc.”
Elections Cameroon, conscious of these challenges, Enow Abrams Egbe underlined, has in a proactive manner adopted for critical and objective appreciation, all that went wrong in order to perform better in the organization of upcoming polls in Cameroon.
He said ELECAM’s action plan will focus on the optimization of electoral material, the attainment of their targeted 10 million voters’ registration in 2019, increasing and reinforcing the rate of participation at elections by citizens, instauration of permanent consultation platform, consolidation of institutional cooperation, intensification of training and capacity building of ELECAM members as well as other stakeholders in the process, increasing sensitization campaigns, education and information of political actors on their participation rights at elections etc.