West electorates abandon their voters cards

About 40 000 voters’ cards have been left abandoned at the premises of Election Cameroon (Elecam) in the Western Region since 2013.

Some registered since 2013, but they never collected their voter cards. The regional services of Election Cameroon (Elecam) are overwhelmed. The information was communicated by La Nouvelle Expression (LNE), in its October 1, 2015, edition.

The newspaper reported that "36455 voter cards have completely been neglected in all of the communal antennas of the Western Region," said LNE which approached Elyse Mandji, head of the Communications department of Elecam in the West. “Some cards have been desperately waiting for over 2 years for their owners to come collect them.”

"They are cards of voters who registered since 2013, before the municipal and legislative elections. They have been sent to Elecam. There are also 2014 cards at Elecam in the West and they have not been claimed by the owners,” informed the private daily.

Elecam leaders, however, implemented measures to encourage voters to reclaim their cards: "tours, sensitization, media releases, among others,” have all proved futile.

This negligence does not however stop Elecam representatives to continue with the registration process. According to Elyse Mahajan, "this year, registrations started on January 5 and ended on August 31, 2015.

"Dated from August 31 we recorded 39881 potential voters, distributed as follows: 21917 men, 17964 women and 31706 youth with 59 disabled men and 35 disabled women for the eight departments in the West Region", said the head of communications.