CI-NEWS

Electoral Registration: ELECAM embraces adapted measures.

2020-07-28

No: 515

Electoral Registration: ELECAM embraces adapted measures.

Persons of voting age and who meet the eligibility criteria of having themselves enlisted on the electoral registers can do so at any Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) branch office of their convenience. Some citizens have however with the opening of the electoral registers on April 9, 2020 had their names added to the list of those who can fully participate in concerned elections.

Faced with the global health challenge the world and Cameroon is going through, ELECAM in respecting barrier measures prescribed by government and the World Health Organisation, taken certain actions to ensure registration continues.

Using social and traditional media to inform and educate the population on voting rights as well as registration procedures is the principal option being used by ELECAM. This method falls within the framework of the initiative dubbed “accompanying citizens in exercising their rights,” which ELECAM staff say both machines and personnel were well prepared to embark on maximum registration of eligible voters in the course of the year. Every ELECAM branch office in Yaounde has installed hygiene and sanitary dispositions with the temperatures of every individual taken upon getting into the premises. Washing of hands and the wearing of face masks are obligatory with hand sanitizers provided on hourly intervals. Sitting positions are arranged in respect to the prescribed one-metre physical distancing. All the above mentioned measures are to safeguard the health of potential voters. ELECAM officials note that registration can at the moment only be done by physical presence given that finger prints are needed in the process, a procedure which is currently expressing low turnout as potential voters are gripped by fear with the outbreak of the pandemic.

ELECAM council head for Yaounde II at the Nkomkana neighbourhood in Yaounde, Cyrille Befe, said they come to the office on a daily basis though on a rotational note to attend to anyone who shows up for registration or simply for information about ELECAM and elections. To him, they cannot stop coming to the office because they don’t know when a potential voter can show up for registration “We are always in the office during our officially stipulated working hours. But I think general fear is what is preventing effective registration. People are staying at their homes as one of the barrier measures to reduce the spread of the virus in the country,” he stated.

Same scenario was reported at the Efoulan and Rond Point Express branch offices in Yaounde. Officials regretted the fact that due to the barrier measures imposed by the pandemic, proximity measures of going to meet eligible voters in popular markets, churches and roundabouts cannot be done at the moment.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

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Electoral Registration: ELECAM embraces adapted measures.