One major lesson just coming out of last Sunday’s municipal election reruns in six localities where the 2007 elections were annulled by the Supreme Court is the very low enthusiasm shown by voters.

In some areas, like the Douala V constituency, participation was at an awful 10 to 15 percent. The rural areas did not cut a better picture either. No matter what apologists and other government strategists would want to sell, this very poor voter participation is a damning verdict on the electoral process and its organisers, especially the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, MINATD.
In effect, the credibility, fairness and transparency of the electoral process have been on an inexorable decline since the first multi-party elections in 1992.

In March and October that year, the government almost lost control of power by calling for and organising relatively free elections. Through all sorts of strategies, it however managed to remain in place. It tried a bit of transparency again in January 1996 during the municipal elections and lost nearly all major councils in the country. It had to tactfully introduce Government Delegates in some of these strategic council areas to take back with the left hand what it lost at the polls.

Since then, the electoral system looks practically squeezed up and highly flawed as MINATD officials and other agents, such as traditional chiefs, have taken the process hostage.

From voter registration, distribution of voters’ card, location of polling stations to compilation and proclamation of results, the whole process is fraught with all sorts of flaws and deliberate abuses. Even the judiciary is not free as many of its members have complacently turned their eyes away from visible cases of fraud and abuses.

It is as if all along the design has been to alienate a good majority of Cameroonians from taking part in the electoral game. That is why out of an estimated population of 17 – 20 million, MINATD can only boost of 4.5 million registered voters. A figure that could even be less if multiple registrations is taken into account. And this after hundreds of millions have been spent to computerise the lists.

Despite the hue and cry from the media, civil society, including the churches, the opposition and international observers for the creation of an independent and credible organ to manage the entire electoral process,  the government balked, succumbing only two years ago to creating what looks like an inherently-flawed Elections Cameroon, over whose effective take-off it is still feet-dragging.
Government and its agents seemed not bothered as the blinding ambition has been to maintain and give the ruling CPDM victory at all cost. A bias the CPDM does not need because it has credible and good candidates who can win elections without recourse to fraud.

In January 2009 ELECAM is to go into effect, that is, if President Biya does not ask for another postponement in its implementation. Even as the government continues to search for the twelve rare breeds to be in the council, our problem rests with the powers of the would be General Manager of this body, who from all indications, would be a government appointee and shall not be subjected to any oath-taking but who shall be calling the main shots. The poor performance of many members of the National Elections Observatory is a vivid illustration of how ELECAM members could also be lacking in will and courage.

For the electoral process in the country to gain an acceptable level of credibility and mobilise greater voter participation, the government needs to sit back, do a succinct analysis of its own undoing and do the simple and straight things needed to put our democracy back on course. Because it is our democracy and stability that are at risk at this point in time.

As a first step, government has to as a matter of priority, release the results of the census conducted in 2006. This should serve as the basis for the redistribution of council and parliamentary seats away from the skewed distribution now in play. The next, which should be a priority for ELECAM is to mount a vigorous campaign to get an overwhelming majority of Cameroonians registered.

In this regard, we are recommending that the voting age be lowered to 18 instead of the current 20 years in order to increase the level of participation of youths. Above all, this country needs a single harmonised electoral code that governs all elections not the current truncated and haphazard laws now in place. It is dangerous for a people to lose faith in elections as a means of acceding to local and national governance.

The Sun.