Revision of Electoral List: Low enrollment a concern

Elections Cameroon (Elecam) has expressed concern over the low number of voting registrations in the electoral lists since the launch of its revision in January.

The Electoral Council was in agreement with officials of Elecam to work on some strategies, two months from the closing of the process on Thursday at the Congress Palace in Yaoundé.

According to Elecam, the number of new registrations in the electoral list since the January launch of revision operations has been low. As at July 3, 2015, only 162,808 potential new voters have registered.

Last year, Elecam recorded 136,000 new subscribers.

Samuel Fonkam Azu'u, president of Elecamums, recognized that these figures are "far from reflecting the real electoral potential of our country."

An estimated potential "of 11 million voters is based on the large number of people who are either or above 20 years, according to data of the general census of the 2004 population", said Dr. Hilaire Kamga, an election expert.

The low enthusiasm of people to register, pushed the Electoral Council to focus on the sixth consultation with the stakeholders in the electoral process on the strategies to change things, two months from the end of the process.

Political party leaders present at the Congress Palace on Thursday were, Ni John Fru Ndi, Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, Grégoire Owona, head of the delegation of the Central Committee of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, Anicet Ekane, Manidem and Basil Louka, UPC.

Members of the public administration present were the chief justice, journalists, representatives of civil society, mostly associations of the disabled and others.

The conclusion that emerged from the Elecam meeting was to set strategies to boost the number of new entrants by 31 August 2015. The issue was with women in particular. There are 63,459 women as compared to the 99,349 men registered. It is just the opposite of young people (between 20 and 35 years) with enrollment at the national level being 73%. In some areas, there are nearly 80% of young people among the new potential voters.