-ELECAM not bothered about turnout in NW/SW
By NOELA EBOB BISONG
With many other stumbling blocks on its path to a successful play at the February 9, 2020 Municipal and Legislative elections, the Social Democratic Front, SDF party is already crying foul with respect to ELECAM’s decision to institute Polling Centers in place of Polling Stations within the North West and South West regions.
The decision, The SUN gathered is meant for security reasons, though the move has been generally interpreted by the SDF as an exaggeration with political undertones in favour of the ruling party, as in relatively safe areas like in Fako division (with the exception of Muyuka) there is no need for Polling Centers to replace Polling Stations.
In a letter dated January 18, 2020 from the desk of the Divisional Coordination of the SDF for Fako signed by the coordinator Njenje Valentine Kleber Esq, addressed to the Divisional Head of ELECAM for Fako and copied several others (of which The SUN procured a copy), the SDF presses for the preservation of Polling Stations and the rigorous and diligent application of sections 82 and 83 of the electoral code.
The letter reads in part that “We wish to emphatically state here that save in the case of Muyuka Sub Division, the entire division is safe, convivial and serene. In this regard, it shall be preposterous, incongruous and utterly counterproductive to cluster voters in polling centers.”
The party outlines that “Our basic organs have expressed their alacrity to accomplish their civic duty of casting their votes in their immediate neighbourhoods as the security issue has improved tremendously to nolmacy.”
While adhering to the fact that Polling Centers are necessary in Muyuka for obvious reasons, the SDF in Fako maintains that “The Poling Center issue…elsewhere in Fako, would disenfranchise scores of bona fide voters and would create a psychosis of uncertainty yearned by the apostles of nihilism and doom.”
On the electoral code, the Njenje Valentine piece records that “In order to have a peaceful, free, fair and transparent polls, Sections 82 and 83 of the Electoral Code must be complied with rigorously.” To the SDF therefore, “civil servants, state employees who have been transferred or placed on retirement and servicemen who have been demobilised after the expiry of the limit for registration shall apply to the Council Commission charged with revision of Electoral Registers within a period of nine days and no later than six days before polling day.”
All efforts by The SUN to get a response from ELECAM in Fako were futile, as the Divisional Head Stephen Nangoh maintained he needed permission from hierarchy before reacting to the matter, citing the “prevailing insecurity” in the region as the reason why.
Findings from The SUN reveal that ELECAM appears not to be bothered by hints on voter apathy in places like Limbe, Tiko, Buea and Idenau as a result of the creation of Polling Centers, where turnouts would have been encouraging as noted by the SDF in the letter. The revelations further point to the assumption by ELECAM that even if it is a handful of voters who turnout on D-day, it will still be a representation of the entire division.