Political parties absent in revision of electoral lists

The revision of electoral lists which has been ongoing since January 2015 to end August 31 has witnessed the conspicuous absence of political parties.

Besides the issue of electoral kits, the operation is also hampered by the absence of actors who form the mixed revision commissions.

In accordance with Law No. 2012/001 of April 19, 2012 on the Electoral Code, apart from the representative of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), lists of review committees at municipal level are made up of "a representative of the administration appointed by the sub-prefect, the mayor or a deputy mayor or a councilor designated by the mayor and a representative of each legalized political party present in the municipality concerned."

"We disapprove of the absence of political parties and civil society in this process since 2014," Mohaman Tanimou Sani, Director General of Elections complained to CT on May 14.

Since May 25, 2015, delegations from Electoral Council have visited various regions where they observed that the situation was same. In the West, Pr. Elijah Mbonda and Mgr Dieudonné Watio decried a lag in the function of joint commissions.

The situation was same for Douala where Thomas Ejake Mbonda engaged representatives of political parties on Thursday, May 28 . They complained that ELECAM does not support the commissions financially. "We are not asking for wages, but minimum support for transportation and daily refreshment," said Carlos Ngoualem, secretary of the electoral district of the Social Democratic Front in Douala 5.

The councilor explained that "the revision commissions have been working each day except weekends since January 1, but will end the exercise August 31. He noted that when a party sends its representative, the person no longer represent just the party, but all citizens of the municipality.

Consequently, this engagement costs the citizen as they are not paid like ELECAM members who are actually employed by the institution," says Carlos Ngoualem.

Until the operation this year, Elections Cameroon offered certain incentives to commission members but these incentives have stopped coming. This seems to be the cause of the absence of some representatives of political parties on the ground.