Ahead of 2025 Presidentials: Kamto accuses ELECAM of manipulation, violating electoral law.

Prof Maurice Kamto addressing the press in Yaounde

The National President of opposition political party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, Prof Maurice Kamto, has accused Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, of manipulating figures and violating the electoral law.

He raised the alarm during a press conference at the party headquarters in Yaounde on January 9.



The 2018 presidential candidate said by failing to publish the national electoral list on December 30, 2024, as stipulated by Article 80 of the Electoral Code, ELECAM flagrantly violated the law.

Article 80 of the Electoral Code, Kamto cited, states that: “At the end of the revision operations, and in view of the documents and data communicated by the regional branches of Elections Cameroon, the Director General of Elections establishes and makes public the national electoral list to the later on December 30”. 

According to the MRC leader, instead of publishing the national electoral list, the Director General of Elections at ELECAM in a release of December 30, 2024, rather informed the public that: “…the electoral lists are available, for consultation, from the Communal Antennas of Elections Cameroon and the ELECAM focal points in the diplomatic representations and consular posts of Cameroon abroad…”.

Kamto vocal regime critic added that by not publishing the national electoral list as prescribed by law, ELECAM “means that to date, there is no national electoral list available and accessible to the public,”.

This, he said, is a serious breach of the law and is likely to compromise the participation of many Cameroonians in the upcoming presidential election, which could create frustrations and spur protests.

“This situation undermines the right to vote of each citizen regularly registered on the electoral lists, who remains uncertain as to whether their registration is valid and unable to make possible corrections,” Kamto stated.

Kamto said his party has referred its concerns to the Electoral Board of ELECAM and also petitioned the Constitutional Council which has full jurisdiction over any question relating to the “regularity and proclamation of the results of the presidential election in question here”.

He argued that without the prior publication of the national electoral list as prescribed by the Electoral Code, the Constitutional Council will be reduced to trial and error in proclaiming the results of the upcoming presidential election. 

He said verifying the reliability of the electoral register constitutes a key element of the “regularity” of the upcoming presidential election and guarantees transparency.

 

 

What Kamto, MRC want

Going by Kamto, the MRC has requested ELECAM to “make the complete national electoral list available to voters in digital version on the official ELECAM website”.

The opposition party also wants the election management body to restore on the national electoral list the 120,000 voters arbitrarily excluded following the conclusion of the revision of electoral registers in August 2024.

MRC is also asking to have updated statistics on registrations, cancellations and internal and external transfers as well as the final list of polling stations, with the number of registrants per station for each poll.

Kamto also highlighted the need for ELECAM to give concrete and precise answers on the production and distribution of voter cards 10 months before the presidential election.

ELECAM, he said, should “remove and relocate, in application of paragraph 4 of Article 96” all polling stations which are not located “in a public place or open to the public such as military barracks, traditional chiefdoms, camps of the police”. 

 

The political figure disclosed that in Tiko, Fako Division of the South West Region, “10 polling stations are housed at the Mutengene Police Instruction and Application Center…02 offices at the Special Amphibious Battalion camp, 01 at the Navy camp”.

Kamto also pointed out what he said were serious concerns observed by the party with regards the “cleaning of the electoral file carried out by the General Directorate of ELECAM and its technical partners”. 

He opined that the operation has been turned into a real opportunity for fraud in registrations on the electoral lists and manipulation of the electoral register with a view to blocking the increase in the electorate. 

He said the move taken by ELECAM, limiting the opening hours of their offices to 3p.m. from Monday to Friday and by prohibiting registrations on Saturdays and Sundays is intended to prevent massive registrations, given that Cameroonians of voting age are more than ever before mobilised to enroll their names on electoral registers. 

 

 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3338 of Tuesday January 14, 2025

 

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