BY Ndumbe Bell J.G in Douala
In a recent readout addressed to the Director General of ELECAM, the current international president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Ndongmo Fouezat Jacqueline Sylvie, has appealed for ELECAM’s full publication of the national voter list. This she says, is to ensure a peaceful and transparent election.
Ndongmo, a human rights activist and peace leader for over 28 years and having contributed to extensive socio-economic development projects with a knack in contributing to the development and revision of national action plans in Cameroon and in the Central African region, emphasises in the readout that the publication of the list in the electoral process is a mark of transparency and crucial to guarantee stability, social peace and the legitimacy of the results.
On many of the reasons she enumerated why it matters, she further invoked article 80 of the Cameroonian electoral code, highlighting that, it “constitutes a serious breach of the electoral process’s legality” as the article states that, “After the revision operations and based on documents and data communicated by the regional branches of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), the DG of elections shall establish and make public the national voter list not later than December 30”.
The President of WILPF International who continued her advocacy for the full publication of the national voter list, said the absence of it will deny citizens to verify duplicates, omissions, nor detect fictitious voters and that the opacity of this information will resort to fuel suspicions of fictitious registrations, deceased individuals or manoevres to exclude certain categories of voters, which the rights activist said would undermine the process and cast doubts on the results and seriously threaten peace.
She cautioned that in the absence of the publication of the list, citizens are justified to term the state apparatus as prejudiced or biased for failure to comply with its legal obligations where potential candidates are deprived of their legal process “to file well-founded appeals in case of disputes”.
The President of WILPF drew further dangers in case of the omission of the list stating according to the readout that instead, the list will “ensure equal opportunities for all candidates and voters, limit post-electoral disputes and contribute to improving and assuring trust and strengthen the legitimacy of the state apparatus”.
She says, “My experience has taught me that after working in a number of peace and stability projects in many conflict countries, transparency and credibility are essential for promoting trust and stability in electoral process”, Sylvie Ndogmo remarked.
WILPF is the oldest women’s peace organisation since 1915 that seeks mediation strategies to end wars and conflicts through non-violent means.