Voter registration: Akere Muna puts Atanga Nji on hot seat!.

During the exercise, the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Dr Erik Essousse, led a caravan to various public squares in Yaounde, to enroll new voters.

“We want to swell up the voters’ list by registering people who have just reached the age of voting, which is 20. Like in the past, we expect the media to accompany us by encouraging all young Cameroonians who have reached voting age to show up and register,” said Dr Essousse.

“With over 7 million people already in our registry, our objective this year is to hit the 7.5 million thresholds, and why not even surpass it,” he added.

The exercise, which is by law slated to end on August 31, but could stop before then if the Head of State announces the date of an election, with the municipal scheduled for early next year.

With the coming elections, politicians, government and civil society organisations have been engaged in nationwide campaigns to get more people registered.

Comparatively, the target of 7.5 million voters in a country of some 28 million people isn't good democratic practice when Senegal, with a population of less than 18 million, registered over 7.5 million voters in their recent presidential poll.

Given that an impressive number of voters is evidence of a credible election without disenfranchising others, Cameroonians who do not understand the importance of their civic responsibility are being cajoled to register.

I have read reports that in some offices in the North West and South West Regions, where voter turnout was about 15 percent at the last municipal poll, citizens seeking service in some government offices are being asked to show their voter cards before they can be served.

When they do not have them, they are directed to a nearby makeshift ELECAM booth to register. It takes less than 20 minutes, as I am told.

The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, whose ministry is a key stakeholder in the country's electoral process, considers such forced registration inappropriate.

On May 2, the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Dr Erik Essousse, and ELECAM Board Chair, Dr Enow Abrams, were received in audience by Minister Atanga Nji. 

Reports later quoted him as saying getting on the "electoral list is not mandatory. It is therefore not possible to force people out of their homes or use pressure of any kind to force people to register on the electoral lists". 

He just detonated an explosive, not an improvised-type used by the boys in the bushes though.

Anti-corruption advocate, Barrister Akere Muna, considered his reaction as a "full panic" with implication that massive registration could see Atanga Nji's ruling CPDM party sliding into the opposition back bench.

In a tweet, Akere Muna, who, some activists are projecting as a possible unique opposition candidate to challenge Paul Biya at the 2025 presidential election, wrote: "If anyone was looking for signs of the effect the massive nationwide drive for voters’ registration is producing, the Minister has just provided one for the world to see. Full Panic. As a responsible citizen, it is your civic duty to actively engage in the democratic process. Registering to vote is an important step in fulfilling that duty. In certain countries voting is even obligatory. For a government to spread a message that dissuades citizens from getting on the voters’ register is simply unheard of. We will go out; we will encourage citizens to go and register”. 

Also fanning the heat on the Minister is the MRC party whose leader, Prof Maurice Kamto, is the main opposition leader in the country. 

Its National Communication Secretary, Joseph Emmanuel Ateba, writes: “That registrations are not only a republican operation but a civic duty...Cameroon find themselves in a state of general unsanitary conditions today because the state has never taken the trouble to raise awareness among the populations on anything, nor on their rights, nor on their duties…Awareness campaigns from political parties and all other civil society organisations as well as celebrities are voluntary support for ELECAM which is responsible for this mission. For the MRC, this statement of Minister Atanga Nji demonstrates a state of panic on the part of the regime in place. The MINAT statement is proof that the government in place never wanted Cameroonians to participate massively in the electoral process and the stagnant figures from ELECAM demonstrates that there is manipulation”.

I leave outspoken Minister Atanga Nji to cool the heat on voter registration, which he rightly said is not compulsory but as a patriotic duty, citizens should be encouraged as low registration should be an embarrassment to the regime.

Postscript: "Talk is cheap, voting is free; take it to the polls" - Nanette L. Avery

Truth is a column on The Guardian Post run by Asong Ndifor