By DOH JAMES SONKEY
In prelude to the announced legislative, municipal, regional elections in Cameroon in 2020, Elections Cameroon, ELECAM in collaboration with UN Women, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, MINPROFF and the National Communication Council, NCC organised last October 24, 2019 at Hotel Azur in Yaounde, a capacity building workshop for media owners on “the role of the media in conducting and promoting peaceful electoral processes in Cameroon.”
Speaking at the occasion, the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Dr Erik Essousse said the role of the media in preparing the minds of people towards peaceful electoral processes in Cameroon cannot be undermined.
He stressed that “You are an essential link; I would even say indispensable, whose role is very im-portant in the electoral process. So, by fully and soundly playing your role, not only will you en-courage more women to be involved in politics but, also and especially be at the base of renewed confidence of citizens with regards to electoral processes thereby guaranteeing peace,”
On her part, the Assistant Representative of UN Women in Cameroon, Hind Jalal pleaded with me-dia professionals to educate political leaders and the society at large on the importance of giving women a chance in the political arena in order to give peace a chance.
The workshop supported by the Peace Building Fund project of the United Nations enabled media professionals to be equipped with texts and laws governing gender mainstreaming in the Cameroo-nian electoral process, to be sensitised on the consideration of gender equality in processing electoral information and to be sensitised on the importance of an inclusive electoral process.
Marked by three key presentations on the Cameroonian electoral code and gender mainstreaming, considering women in processing electoral information and measures to prevent and mitigate vio-lence related to electoral communication, the workshop ended with journalists taking commitment on gender sensitive election information processing in Cameroon.