Ignatius Nji
Dr. Samuel Fonkam Azu'u President of Elections Cameroon
North West Region of Cameroon which was undeniably the fief
of the main opposition party SDF before 2007 twin election, given the number of
Councils and Members of parliament has once again underscored the challenging
position of beating down voter apathy with the massive registration on the
electoral register raising the number of eligible electorates to 22000. With
this score the President of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) Dr. Samuel Fonkam
Azu’uh says the Region has taken the lead nationwide as the highest registered
voter population. In the North West Region of the seven Division, Mezam comes
first and in Mezam of the five Sub-Divisions, Bamenda II comes first seat of
SDF chieftain Fru Ndi. The South Region from where President Paul Biya
originates is staggering the least registered in terms of voter population by
end of May 2015.
This declaration was made in Bamenda on Friday June 5th
by the President of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) accompanied by his Vice Dr.
Nsangou, while on routine tour in the Region to continuously sensitize the
people to register. The revision exercise that is ongoing concerns mostly those
who were not registered, those who have attended the age of 20 and those who
have relocated from their previous locations in to another council area. Dr.
Fonkam made it clear that people who are insane have no voting rights so can
not be registered and that the teams in the field are doing their best in
collaboration with the local population to identify deceased persons on the
list for expunging. This result has extricated English speaking Cameroonians as
being stubborn as branded by the Director General of elections management.
On a very serious note, with only three months to the end of
the exercise for 2015 political party leaders were called upon to be part of
these exercise now to avoid last minute rush when elections are announced. Most
often sympathizers are caught off voting for failing to register and on
Election Day they can not vote the candidates they want. Dr fonkam made some
clarifications as to the recent misgiving that ensued at the level of
management at the election management body ELECAM between members of the Board
of Directors where he is the President and the Director General of Elections
management, Sani Tanimou. According to him, the Director General by meting
sanctions on staff who were assigned by the President to attend a training
workshop organized by African Union, did so in variance of the law guiding the
day to day running of the election management body ELECAM. This workshop for
English speakers was negotiated by him with all expenses borne by the African
Union and he, Fonkam had duly notified to the Director General that another
workshop is coming up for French speaking Staff of ELECAM. Those who attended
were given eight days suspension without any query giving the impression that
the decision was taken in semblance of a kangaroo court. Another case was that
of five persons assigned on mission abroad by the President of ELECAM following
the prerogative of the Head of ELECAM and for reasons best known to the
Director General, sanctions were meted with a slash in salary.
These instances to Dr. Fonkam, is outrageous given that the
law creating ELECAM is very clear as to who does what and who the over all boss
of the Body is. Dr. Fonkam says he is the President of ELECAM with
specificities of functions placed on a monthly salary so could not be referred
to as a Board Chair as is the case in state para-statal. Another scenario that
generated some animosity was that the Board of Directors had requested for a
proposal of names for appointment from the Director General as it is done in
the Republic, he failed to present any names and the Board used its discretion
to appoint some persons. These appointments was to replace those who were due
retirement from the public service and were on secondment at ELECAM as heads in
some Divisions and Regions, the Director General refused to install them.
Other concerns addressed by Dr. Fonkam Azu’u, were whether it
was not time to introduce the use of biometric voting and or the use of single
ballot paper as propagated by the SDF party. He said if the Cameroonian people
want to have biometric voting or single ballot let parliament vote in to law
and ELECAM would have no choice than implement. He said. According to him there
is more to elections than transparent boxes, biometric voting and single ballot
paper saying the Cameroon model has been applauded worldwide as one of the
best. Africa is the testing ground for all these new technology he said and so
far in Africa only Namibia has introduced the biometric voting system and what
Nigeria has is the biometric identification system which has its own flaws.
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