Editorial: Voter registration in crisis-hit in NW, SW; Separatists should stop intimidating population.

With every passing day, the satanic atrocities being committed in the two regions are indicative that the "struggle for separation" has gone off the track. 

As observed in Bamenda last week, some taxis were burnt because the owners did not paint them in blue to reflect the flag of the imaginary Ambazonia Republic.

The hooligans had also been compelling taxi drivers and other motorists not to use recognised national matriculation numbers for their cars.

How do those weird directives advance their course for independence? Are the primitive decisions not just a sign of frustration or failure?

How does depriving people of their inalienable rights to register and vote advance the cause of separation?

As The Guardian Post reported yesterday, quoting Mbowoh Elvis, ELECAM North West Regional Delegate, "the North West has so far registered a total of 18,118 persons within a short period of time. This is broken down as follows; 7,764 for Mezam; 2,694 for Donga-Mantung; 2,359 for Momo, while Menchum is on 2,034, Boyo on 1,196. Bui has registered 1,308 voters while Ngoketunjia has so far registered 767 voters"

The ELECAM official indicated that due to the insecurity in the region, “we cannot reveal the strategies used in lobbying for voters”.

Voter registration is not supposed to be done covertly as the election official divulged. His disclosure explains the insecurity in the two regions where some of its officials have been targets of kidnapping and even brutal murder.

That has, however, not deterred them. As the ELECAM official explained, “our strategies involve when and how we move in the field, so exposing them to the public will also be exposing them to those who do not want to see us in the field and that will be risky. It is, however, important for the people to know that we are working with the major stakeholders, political parties, civil society organisations, the administration and the forces of law and order".     

The separatist warlords should not make ELECAM officials their target for whatever reason, just as preventing people from registering and voting is a taboo. 

It does not even in warp logic advance the separatists' vaunting ambition which has had a still birth.

There have been various reports that the conflict has retarded development in the two regions, in some cases to the point it would take decades to catch up with the rest of the country.

Arguably, there are still significant issues of discord in the form of state as decentralisation which the ruling party has been insisting on as the best form of state for the country has not been completed in over two decades.

It is through the ballot, especially at the legislative elections, that the issue of the form of state which has been the nexus of the Anglophone conflict can be decided.

How do the vandals preventing people from voting think there can be genuine democracy to decide the form of state and put other national issues in contention on the table of genuine dialogue if people are prevented from registering and subsequently voting?  

As of the start of this year, according to the Director General of Elections at ELECAM, Dr Erik Essousse, a total number of 7,361,875 voters had been registered. Of that number, 3,429,025 of them are women and 3,932,850 are men. It represents the total number of those registered to vote in the 10 regions.

The Centre Region for instance has the highest number of voters with 1,303,376, according to the press release.The Far North and the Littoral are the next most populous areas in the country, at 11,193,542 and 11,122,338, respectively.

The West Region comes fourth with 839,687 voters. At the last place is the South Region with 299,076 voters. In addition, 18,937 Cameroonians living abroad were also registered.

The figures of the North West and South West regions remain apologetic despites their democratic prowess given that the two regions had experienced a democratic change of government before reunification.

Separatist warlords in their imaginary social media dream of an Ambazonia state should concede that it has failed and failed again. 

They should not interfere in the liberty of people to exercise their human rights to register and vote to decide who governs them at the municipal, legislative and presidential level.

The government too should provide security to ELECAM officials in the two regions to ensure inclusive elections, not only in the two regions but nationwide. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No 3138 of Tuesday June 11, 2024