In a bid to support the massive registration of Cameroonians on the electoral roll and eventually make sure they answer present during the voting period, the civil society organisation, Un Monde Avenir and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation accompanied by the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding to support Elections Cameroon in ensuring transparency,
inclusiveness and credibility so as to effectively build democracy.
This treaty comes to implement the project on “strengthening the participation of Civil Society in the democratic system and electoral process in Cameroon”. The project with a life span of 42 months will focus mainly on supporting ELECAM in raising citizen awareness among the masses with a view to encouraging citizens of the voting age to register and to collect their voter
cards, in order to be able to vote when the time comes. It shall equally define the roles and responsibilities of the different parties as affirmed by the President of the Electoral Board ELECAM, Enow Abrams Egbe, while answering questions from the press.
“I want to greet this initiative by Un Monde Avenir supported by Friedrich Ebert Foundation. We are coming out of this exercise to grow the electoral registration. Elections Cameroon remains the only authority to do this work. The role of Un Monde Avenir is to accompany ELECAM in sensitizing and growth of registration.”
He addd that the main goal is to gain the complete trust of Cameroonians.
“Our main objective is to make sure that we have an increase in the voter registration exercise so that the next elections will have a greater participation.
The collaboration with the civil society is very primordial. The civil society is one of the stakeholders of the electoral process. We want to let the world know, Cameroonians in particular and our electors especially, that there is transparency, inclusive elections and free and fair participation in all what we are doing in Elections Cameroon.”
The civil society organisation, Un Monde Avenir, though with a critical point of view, pledged to continue to be in collaboration with ELECAM, noting that it has its own role to play in this electoral process.
As explained by Philippe NANGA, the human rights educator, “Un Monde Avenir will bring forth its contribution in the putting in place of youths to accompany the registration of electors. We are going to deploy more than a thousand youths in the 360 sub divisions to accompany ELECAM and to sensitize the population. We have also anticipated on the participation of women and activities that concern the participation of people with a handicap. Elections have to be inclusive and so all these actions in the 10 regions is to have a maximum of registered voters and finally to make sure they take part effectively during the vote. The more people participate, there is more truth, more security and more legitimacy. The aim of an election is to construct
social cohesion and national solidarity. “
The project is implemented by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and according Mr Christian Klatt, Resident Representative Friedrich Ebert Stiftung for Cameroon and Central Africa Office, they shall do exactly what’s expected of them as well as evaluate themselves to be sure they are on track.
“The European Union agreed on financing this project that is carried out by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation as well as Un Monde Avenir. As we just signed the MoU, we are thankful to ELECAM for supporting us in this project. For 42 months we won’t just look at the presidential elections in 2025. As you all know registration into the electoral process is still valid even after the general
elections. This means we will continue our work in sensitizing people to register and to vote. We will be in a constant evaluation process. We are open to all types of evaluations from external sources as well.”
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding therefore marked the kick starting of the project which according to the signatories shall go a long way to ensure free, fair, credible and reliable elections in Cameroon.
