After attaining a historic 755 000 new voters at the end of voter registration on 31 August, Dr Benjamin Akih, Coordinator of English Cameroon for a united Cameroon is calling on opposition parties to exert pressure on ELECAM to publish the electoral register latest December 30, 2024.
While hailing the attainment of 8 million registered voters, Dr Akih says with a population of 27 million, Cameroon has a potential of 12.2 million voters, meaning that 4 million of them are still unregistered. He also regrets the underrepresentation of Anglophones in voter registration. Of the 755000 new voters, the North West (about 27873) and South West (35987) account for only 8.5% of the national total. If these figures are added to existing figures, we now have about 425 000 registered in Southwest and 638 000 registered in Northwest .This gives a total of about 1.06 million registered voters in Northwest and Southwest, whereas Southwest has a about 970 000 eligible voters and Northwest has about 1.4 million eligible voters. He thus concludes that we definitely need to do better. Following is his statement in its entirety:
8 million registered voters, about 4 million still unregistered, more than 1 million unregistered anglophones
Dear brothers and sisters,
We thank God for the gift of life and for this beautiful country, Cameroon. It is our duty to ensure that Cameroon is governed well, as a federation and an effective constitutional democracy. Voter registration, voting, and defense of the integrity of the ballot box ought to be our duty.
The absurdity of the French-inspired leadership structure has been shown this week in two ways. In Cameroon, after weeks of useless antagonism, the Prime Minister was able to resolve that the match between Cameroon and Namibia be played in Garoua. We wish our team great success! Meanwhile in France, after dissolving parliament to cure the nation of a drift to the far right, Mr. Macron’s centrist party collaborated with the left wing to deny the far right a parliamentary majority or highest representation. But in a typical hautes-instructions-betrayal, Mr. Macron has denied the left wing the chance to nominate a Prime Minister. Paradoxically, he has now used the far right he set out to disparage in order to name a new Prime Minister, undermining the left wing. This is French leadership on display – incapable of consistency and collaborative leadership.
But our topic today is voter registration, the first step in the defense of our popular sovereignty as a nation. We want to thank all those who contributed toward attainment of this milestone of 8 million registered voters. Secondly, we want to call on all newly registered voters to make sure that they collect their voter’s card. Thirdly, even as we plan for the next cycle of voter registration, we call on the opposition to organize and exert pressure on ELECAM to publish the list of registered voters as required by law.
1. For the 2024 voter registration cycle, 755 085 new voters have been added to the electoral register, bringing the non-curated total to 8 111 960 voters.
1.1. If we take the population of Cameroon to be about 27 million and the fraction of eligible voters among those to be 45%, that is, those above 20 years old, then the total population of eligible voters is about 12.2 million.
1.2. We thank all volunteers and ELECAM workers who contributed to the historical addition of 755 000 voters to the electoral register this year. We recall that from January to March, only about 144 000 new voters were added. Our platform joined the call to action, since we thought such low numbers were unacceptable for a country seeking to improve its governance through the ballot box. We are glad to see that over the next five months from April to August, about 600 000 voters were added. The non-curated total number of registered voters is now 8.1 million. We still have 4.1 million unregistered voters.
1.3. If we analyze the statistics of the newly registered voters, we will realize a few things:
1.3.1. People respond to organized voter registration campaigns. Political parties, civil society organizations, and religious bodies all have a role to play. When they play a role, then the outcomes are positive.
1.3.2. We continue to praise the people of the West region. The number of eligible voters in that region is about 1 million and the total registered is about 900 000. There are more women registered than men, reflecting the demographics of Cameroon where there are about 50.3% women and 49.7% men. Most regions are marked by greater voter and political apathy among women.
1.3.3. There is significant under-representation of some regions. For example, it is reported that the target set by ELECAM for the Far North region was 104 000 new voters but only about 50 000 new voters was registered. This represents a systematic marginalization of the voices from that region. This also happens because there were fewer mobilization campaigns there by political parties from January to August.
1.3.4. In some regions such as the war-torn Northwest and Southwest regions, it may appear that the targets set by ELECAM have been attained. But those targets were set very low and in a manner that entrenches the significant under representation of anglophone regions in the electoral register. First of all, in December 2023, the curated electoral register showed that Northwest and Southwest constituted less than 14% of the total registered voters. Rather than alarm ELECAM and trigger greater allocation of resources and staff, ELECAM set a target of about 46 000 for the two regions, while setting a target of 650 000 for the nation. This was an upward revision after the surge in voter registration because they had initially set raising the total from 7.3 million to 7.5 million as the target. We can see that even the revised targets for Northwest and Southwest were set with a desire to maintain the under representation.
From the preliminary results, it is reported that in Southwest, 35 987 new voters were added, with women only constituting 40%. In Northwest, a total of about 27 873 were effectively added to the system by early September. We don’t have an assessment of the percentage of women there. This means that Northwest and Southwest only constituted 8.5% of the new voters added to the electoral register this year. That is, as voter registration is improved nationwide, the under representation of anglophone regions in the electoral register worsens. This should be alarming to all those pretending to be fighting for the liberation of the people of these two regions. We must do better in 2025. With these new voters, we now have about 425 000 registered in Southwest and 638 000 registered in Northwest.
This gives a total of about 1.06 million registered voters in Northwest and Southwest, whereas Southwest has a about 970 000 eligible voters and Northwest has about 1.4 million eligible voters. We definitely need to do better.
In a nutshell, while we thank all political parties who contributed to this historical result, we call on them to do more next year. We also emphasize the need to combat the systemic under representation of some regions in the electoral register. Equity begins by fairly weighting the voices of our brothers and sisters in all regions of the country.
2. All registered voters must endeavor to obtain their voter’s card from ELECAM
2.1. We have been reliably informed by some of our brothers and sisters who have struggled to obtain their voter’s card from ELECAM. Many months after registration, they keep sending them back each time they go to collect their voter’s card. This is the case of conscientious compatriots trying to do the right thing. Other compatriots need to be reminded and encouraged. They can easily give up if this pattern of behavior persists.
2.2. We urge ELECAM to print the voter’s cards as fast as possible. They must respect the estimated time given for production of the voter’s card of any newly registered voters.
2.3. ELECAM officials will not respond to this call without further pressure. We therefore call on all political parties, civil society organizations, and religious leaders to consistently exert pressure on ELECAM to fulfill their duty in issuing voter’s card. Preferably, political parties should establish mechanisms for new voters to report extreme delays by ELECAM in issuing voter’s cards.
2.4. These delays extend to people who have moved to a new locality and who try to adjust their voting station. Unusual delays have been reported. ELECAM will not significantly improve the mechanisms of carrying out these adjustments in a timely manner unless consistent and public pressure is exerted on them.
3. Opposition parties and the civil society should be prepared to fight for the publication of the electoral register in December as another critical step in improving the transparency of our elections.
3.1. Section 80 of the electoral law states: At the end of the revision exercise and based on the documents and data provided by the Regional Branches of Elections Cameroon, the Director General of Elections shall draw up and publish the national electoral register, no later than 30 December.
3.2. Elecam has not respected the provisions of this article in the past. This seems logical from the perspective of ELECAM’s alliance with the ruling party in rendering our elections opaque and fraudulent. Some studies have shown that one of the ways voter participation is suppressed on election day is by switching the polling station of voters in pro-opposition areas.
Another charge has been that the register is sometimes filled with people who are non-existent and not recognizable by others in the polling area. If these are true, it may seem logical from the perspective of those who are afraid of the freely expressed sovereign will of the people of Cameroon. They won’t stop depending on this practice unless they are compelled to do so.
3.3. We call on ELECAM administrators to follow the law and publish the electoral register latest December 30, 2024.
3.4. We equally call on opposition parties to prepare to exert pressure on ELECAM to carry out this much needed exercise. Your pressure mechanisms should include massive protests. If such protests are properly organized and carried out, it will be clear to those who undermine our popular sovereignty that their tricks will no longer be accepted. It is by organizing and exerting pressure that we will obtain transparency of the electoral register, avoid unjust disqualification of competitive politicians, and transparency of all elections.
3.5. As we prepare for voter registration in January 2025, we call on ELECAM to increase the number of voter registration kits and staffing. We have advocated for an increased budget for ELECAM. The independence and efficiency of our electoral body is as crucial as the military of our country. Proper exercise of our popular sovereignty will protect us from new and old colonial masters. We have also been informed that in some areas, in an attempt to slow down voter registration, some ELECAM officials took too much time for each person registered. We need to do better in 2025. It is a reasonable target to say that 1.0 to 1.4 million new voters will be added to the electoral register next year before the kickoff of presidential election scheduled for October 2025.
In summary, brothers and sisters, this our country, Cameroon, can be significantly improved through massive voter registration, transparency of the electoral register, massive voting, and defense of the transparency of all elections by all means possible. We must also ensure the equitable participation of all regions at all stages of the joint exercise of our popular sovereignty. Once more, we thank all political parties, civil society organizations, religious organizations, and Elecam workers who contributed to the historic addition of 755 000 new voters to our common electoral register, an important tool for the defense of our sovereignty.
May God bless you and may God bless Cameroon as we jointly fight to make it a better place for everyone through federalism and effective constitutional democracy.
Dr. Benjamin Akih, on behalf of
English Cameroon for a united Cameroon
Serving the nation since 2017
September 6, 2024
