ELECAM’s Board Chair, Samuel Fonkam Azu’u, has said that the target for this year’s biometric registration is far from being attained. “As of now, about 75,817 voters have enrolled and this is not up to the number ELECAM has been targeting,” he revealed.

He was speaking during a meeting of the ELECAM Board on July 9 in Yaounde Mont Febe’ Hotel to discuss issues concerning the biometric registration of voters. Fonkam Azu’u said ELECAM has not done enough as far as encouraging Cameroonians to vote. “We ought to do better. In relation to this, we, therefore, shall be taking a very close look at the registration exercise, as well as looking for conditions for a trip abroad so that we can go and supervise and control the ongoing registration of Cameroonians who are residing abroad.

We shall make sure that we encourage them and educate them on the importance of voting. Cameroonians understand the importance of good elections and we are going to communicate better with them, to make sure that they go in for the registration,” he stated.

He added that the electoral committee has not done enough, not just because of the collaborators in the field, but because of the other stakeholders of the electoral process, notably the political parties and the civil society.

“They have not taken note of this exercise. They ought to know that it is important for the credibility of the voters’ roll. If at the end of the year the law compels us to present the voters lists so that people should see and if we are not able to do so in five years, we will have a voters list repeat.

I am talking about the names of death people and people who are no longer in the constituencies where they used to be, and people who have lost their electoral capacity. If we stay for five years without carrying out the revision exercise, by the time the next major election comes up in the country, we will have voter’s rolls that are five years old and when started all over, it will virtually be a recompilation. That is one thing we always try to avoid,” he said.

The session, where 18 members of the Electoral Board meet, is a platform to present the progress report on the activities of the institution from April 25 to date, as well as revise the registration list.

It was agreed that the report should be presented so that even the members not resident in Yaounde could be present so that they would be personally informed.

Fonkam Azu’u said the annual revision of the electoral list is a very important exercise which should not be undermined. “It is because of this that at any given time, if elections have to take place, we will have clean and up-to-date voters’ roll,” he stated.

“For those who did not register because they had not attained the age of electoral maturity they will be registered, or even those that had attained and did not register, I encourage them to do so now,” Fonkam Azu’u said.