Gov't May Not Implement ELECAM

By Kini Nsom

Government seems to be turning a deaf ear to the upsurge of calls from the opposition parties in the country that only the newly created Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, be allowed to organise the upcoming twin elections in June this year.

Recently, the frontline opposition, the Social Democratic Front, SDF, issued a statement that sounded like a threat. It warned that there should be no elections if ELECAM was not put in place.

This statement, which the party issued after its National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting in Limbe on January 27, was interpreted by many observers to mean that the party was threatening to boycott the elections.

When quizzed by The Post, the SDF Secretary General, Dr. Elizabeth Tamajong, denied that her party was calling for a boycott. She said they were calling on the Government to organise elections only when ELECAM would have gone functional.

"If ELECAM can only be implemented in 18 months as stipulated by the law, let elections too be organised in 18 months," Dr. Tamajong said.She made it clear that the SDF wants Government to postpone elections.   

Earlier, the National Union for Democracy and Progress, UNDP, which is an ally of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, CPDM, had expressed a similar view.
The party made it very clear that they would disapprove of any elections that are not organised by ELECAM.

The SDF and UNDP only corroborated what the Dr. Adamou Ndam Njoya-led Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU, had declared before.

But a recent meeting that brought together officials of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, MINATD, and some officials of the National Elections Observatory, NEO, seems to be an indication that Government will go ahead to organise the elections.

The meeting that held in Yaounde behind closed doors came on the heels of calls by the opposition parties on Government to let ELECAM organise the upcoming elections.
Reacting to the declarations of the opposition parties, a senior official in MINATD who asked not to be named, accused the political parties of either undermining the law or demonstrating ignorance of it.

He said the law creating ELECAM makes it clear in its article 42 that the body can only go functional in 18 months. The law also states clearly that until ELECAM is put in place, MINATD and NEO will continue to organise elections.

"Calling on Government now to implement ELECAM is tantamount to calling for the violation of the law," he observed. Reacting to calls for the postponement of elections, the Government official said elections cannot be postponed, except there is a serious crisis rocking the country.

"Now that Cameroon is fully enjoying peace, what reason can we give for postponing elections?" he wondered.Meanwhile, opposition parties and members of the Civil Society are unanimous that NEO and MINATD cannot organise free and fair elections. But officials of NEO say they are going down to the field to make sure that the upcoming elections are free and fair.

All the stakeholders in the elections are calling on Cameroonians of voting age to register massively, in order to exercise their civil responsibility by voting in the upcoming elections.

Comments

[lionking]

"Now that Cameroon is fully enjoying peace, what reason can we give for postponing elections?"
Peace my ass.what kind of peace are we talk about when people from a given region(South Cameroon) are been brutalised?What peace are we talking about when some people do not have rights in their own country?What peace when people are imprisoned without charges?MINATD and NEO members(people without professional morals) have surely shaped their minds to pocket some votes like always.If adjoining elections would mean voilating any law,then let it be voilated because it wouldn't be the first time going against laws in Cameroon or postponing elections.

[rexon]

"Now that Cameroon is fully enjoying peace, what reason can we give for postponing elections?"

That is what they say, that there is peace. Shame. This CPDM bandits will soon go into hiding. They are lying to themselves pretending to be lying to the Cameroonian people that there is any peace anywhere in both La Republique and the Southern Cameroons. This is real shame on these CPDM bandits.

[katakata]

COMPUTERIZATION OF ELECTO REGS...

WHAT IS ALL THIS MESS?

WHY SHOULD A SIMPLE PROCESS OF PUNCHING NAMES INTO A COMPUTER ATTRACT SO MUCH SECRECY?

WHATS GOING ON?

IS THE STATE SO POOR THAT IT CANT LINK UP THE DIFFERENT SERVICES OF THE ADMINISTARTION OF EACH DIVISION VIA INTRANET?

WHAT RUBBISH IS THIS?

SHOULD THE PEOPLE BE MADE TO HATE EACH OTHER EVERY TIME ELECTIONS APPROACH?

IS THERE NO ONE IN THAT DUMMY MINATD WHO HAS DONE SOME INFORMATICS TO TELL THOSE PHAGOCYTES HOW THINGS SHOULD BE DONE?

DONT THEY KNOW THAT DATA GATHERING IS A GRADUAL PROCESS THAT TAKES A LONG TIME AND SHOULDNT BE REPEATED OVER AND OVER ? IT IS ONLY IN CAMEROON THAT THE DIVISIONS REGISTER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VOTERS EVERY ELECTION YEAR AS THOUGH THE ACTUAL POPULATION SIZE HAD QUADRUPLED.

LET THE DO'S AND THEIR MINATD BOSSES TAKE LESSONS IN BASIC COMPUTER SCIENCE AND STOP MAKING A MYTH OF A SIMPLE PROCESS THAT COULD EVEN BE GIVEN ON CONTRACT BASIS TO SOME LOCAL CYBER CAFES AROUND TOWN WITHOUT RAISING ALL OF THIS DUST.

MY ADVICE TO THE CAMEROONIAN PEOPLE IS THAT THEY SHOULD FACE THE ISSUE AND NOT THE ISSUER.YES THEY SHOULD FACE THE MESSAGE AND NOT THE MESSENGER.

LET YOUR CRITICISMS BE CONSTRUCTIVE...I FOR ONE, I DONT CARE IF THE SAME PERSON STAYS IN POWER TILL DEATH PARTS HIM FROM IT...WHAT MATTERS IS " DOES HE DELIVER THE DELIVERABLES?"

MONARCHIES LIKE MOROCCO AND SAUDI ARABIA DO NOT COMPLAIN IF THEIR KING RULES THEM FOR 50 YEARS BEFORE PASSING POWER OVER TO HIS SON..YET THEY CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH THE WELFARE SITUATION, AND IF THEY ARE NOT CONTENT, THEY SPEAK OUT, NOT AGAINST THE MONARCH, BUT AGAINST THE CONDITIONS THEY LIVE IN....

WHEN I WAS A LAD, I SAW STUDENTS BRANDISHING A HISTORY BOOK BY WALTER RODNEY TITLED : "HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA"..

YES I THOUGHT IT WAS ABSOLUTE REALITY. BUT WHEN I LOOK AT CAMEROON TODAY, I SEE BUT CAMEROONIANS DEPRAVED OF ANY FORM OF ETHOS LABOURING NIGHT AND DAY TO UNDERDEVELOP CAMEROON.

BIYA.JFN, MUNA JUA ,..WHOEVER BE THE ONE AT THE HELM SHOULD NOT BE THERE BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WANT HIM TO, BUT HE SHOULD BE THERE BECAUSE HE WANTS TO WORK AND SERVE THE PEOPLE..

AND SO FAR....I HAVE NOT SEEN AN IOTA OF HUMILITY OR SERVITUDE IN THESE BIRDS FLOCKING TOGETHER UNDER DIFFERENT COLOURS BUT SAME WINGS.