By Doh James Sonkey
Within the framework of the 1000th issue of The Horizon newspaper, a symposium was organised on electoral transparency last July 25, 2025 at the Muna Foundation in Yaoundé. Hosted by the Publisher of the newspaper, Ndikum Gerald and moderated by the managing editor of The Guardian Post, Doh Bertrand, the symposium was animated by Barrister Amungwa and the Chief of the Communication Unit of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, Bintou Sar.
Explaining the various measures put in place by Elections Cameroon, ELECAM to guarantee free, fair and transparent elections in Cameroon, Bintou Sar first of all thanked the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Dr Erik Essousse for permitting her to be part of the panel discussion.
She explained that ‘‘ELECAM has 30 000 polling stations as of now and the figures may increase to 34 000 polling stations in Cameroon in the years ahead. Candidates of the various political parties need to train their observers and dispatch in all these 30 000 polling stations.”
Bintou Sar added that, ‘‘ELECAM has a permanent consultation with election stakeholders in order to ensure inclusiveness and transparency of the electoral process.”
Barrister Amungwa on his part said more is still to be done by ELECAM to ensure transparency, fairness. He argued that, ‘‘election cannot be fair when some citizens of voting age do not have their national identity cards and the voting age not brought down to 18 years.’’
The barrister at law declared that ‘‘ELECAM Board members are not independent, they are mostly from the ruling CPDM party. ELECAM is looked upon like an arm of a political party.’’
Gerald Ndikum concluded by thanking all participants at the symposium and expressed hope that the speakers threw more light on the crucial topic.