ELECAM evaluates 2023 first quarter voter registration.

Members of ELECAM’s Electoral Board, noted that voter registration has decreased compared to last year.

Explaining the situation, the Chairperson of the Electoral Board of ELECAM, Dr Enow Abrams Egbe, linked the relative decline to the just ended senatorial election.

This, he said, was because most political stakeholders were busy with the senatorial election.

Dr Enow Abrams revealed that since ELECAM started the revision of the electoral list in January this year, a total of 103,220 new persons have enrolled on the voter’s register.

He said 37, 856 of those registered so far are women. Dr Enow Abrams put the number of young people registered in the first quarter of 2023 at 75, 582 while people living with disabilities enrolled so far are 124.

Despite the decline, the Chairperson of the Electoral Board of ELECAM, remarked that with the strategies outlined by the institution, “the statistics will present a curve of variation more positive in the days and weeks to come”.

Dr Enow Abrams encouraged ELECAM staff especially, whom he said maintained the efforts of sensitisation towards voters during the electoral period to ensure a smooth continuity of registration on the electoral lists.

He told ELECAM board members that “the entire vision of progress depends above all on departing from classical habits, and we have made great strides so far”.

Dr Enow Abrams stated that the dynamism of the country’s democracy must always rely on a different approaches.  Going by Dr Enow Abrams, that can only be achieved “by and with our fellows of goodwill, driven by a patriotic approach and republican desire to see our country’s image, political maturity and reputation sour even higher”.

ELECAM, he said, is constantly seeking for means and ways of advancing democracy, while drawing lessons from past experiences. The most important challenge, he said is innovation.

“We can only move forward by developing a positive, republican and constructive attitude, while respecting the channels and beacons provided by the laws in force,” he said.

For the next phases of the country’s political advancement, Dr Enow Abrams, told the Electoral Board of ELECAM that: “Your commitment and adherence to the fundamental democratic values as well as your constant strategic guidance are crucial”.

With the 2023-2025 electoral cycles, Dr Enow Abrams, reminded the members of the Electoral Board that they had the “singular opportunity during elections to transform the greatest weakness into a historical leap towards a sustainable, inclusive, peaceful and resilient democracy”.

The session also witnessed the examination and adoption of reports of the fourth ordinary session of the electoral board for 2022.

The board adopted the 2022 administrative accounts, management accounts and statement of expenditure for the special appropriation of the electoral board and the terms of reference for the board’s field trip.