Electoral Registers: Time For Consultation In Council Branches

At 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 13, 2018, Mvondo Sylvestre Désiré, the Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) Branch Head for Yaounde III Council came into his office with a carton containing the electoral registers for the entire Council area in preparation for the October 7, 2018 presidential election.

Mr Mvondo told Cameroon Tribune that the registers that have been drawn up per polling station will be put at the disposal of registered voters and other political actors to consult. He further disclosed that a team is already in place to facilitate the consultation and take all complaints to forward to hierarchy.

The arrival of the electoral registers in the Yaounde III Council Branch of ELECAM came to confirm the earlier statement by sources at the Directorate General of Elections at ELECAM that the registers were being dispatched to the field where some Electoral Board members of ELECAM and officials have been working tooth and material to ensure the material organisation of the October 7 presidential election.

The current action of ELECAM is in respect of the provisions of Section 70 of the Electoral Code which state that, “Electoral registers shall be drawn up and kept in every council.

An electoral register shall also be drawn up for each polling station.” The purpose of the keeping the electoral registers at the Council branch of ELECAM is explained in Section 81 (2) of the Electoral Code, “Any political party, elector or representative of a political party or candidate may petition the Electoral Board for any case in particular of omission, error or multiple entry of an elector on the national electoral register.” The earlier the various actors consult the electoral registers the better.

This is because Section 81 (3) of the Electoral Code gives them the possibility to “appeal the Electoral Board’s decision to reject the petition in the Court of Appeal with...