Ahead of October 12 poll: ELECAM Regional Delegates, collaborators hone skills on polling stations management.

Officials said the workshop was to refresh the minds of participants to better master electoral process and what is expected of them on election day to ensure voting process is peaceful and credible. 

Opening the training, the Deputy Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Abdoulkarimou, said the objective is to bring regional delegates, their collaborators and other ELECAM agents up to speed on what is expected of them on voting day. 

“We are training ourselves, Regional Delegates in Cameroon who will go and train other electoral agents. The electoral agents are those who will be in charge of running the polling stations on election day,” Abdoulkarimou explained. 

With over 31,000 polling stations spread across the country, Abdoulkarimou said the participants would in tend train over 60,000 agents with the knowledge gained from the Yaounde training.  

“So, we are training the trainers who will go back to the field to train the electoral agents,” he stated, insisting that the day of voting is the most important day in the whole electoral process.

Abdoulkarimou stressed that with the election’s day drawing closer, the training is to perfectly arm their field agents for any challenges. 

No two elections are the same 

Speaking during the workshop, political scientist, Prof Jean Daniel Bombela, emphasised that the training is of utmost importance as it will empower those going to the field.

Bombela said the 2025 election is different from that of 2018 and officials need to be well armed. 

“Elections are not the same. The 2018 election is not the same as this one. So, many things have changed. This year the candidates are not the same…the political environment is not the same,” he explained.

With the current political situation, coupled with some candidates who were not accepted for the race, Bombela said participants must be ample ready as anything can happen during the election. 

ELECAM South West Regional Delegate, Zofoa Njoya Sake, said knowledge gained from the training will be used to train Divisional Supervisory Commissions and Polling Chairpersons. 

Participants were during the training, drilled on composition of a polling station, roles and responsibilities of members in the electoral process, the documents and materials to be found in the polling station, how the voting process and the vote counting occurs.

They were also trained on filling of official report as prescribed by law, inclusion and management of polling stations, management of electoral funds, ethics and professional conduct in the polling stations among other things. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3560 of Wednesday September 10, 2025