Electoral Materials: Organisational Success

The five political leaders and candidates in the October 7, 2018 presidential elections who filed petitions at the Constitutional Council calling for either the total or partial cancellation of the election did not have much to complain about with regard to the electoral material. Speaking to Cameroon Tribune shortly after the election, the Director General of Elections at Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), Erik Essoussè said the body went to work immediately after the convening of electors to the polls by President Paul Biya on July 7, 2018. He said they put in place sector commissions that worked in a chain.

The methodology put in place enabled ELECAM to dispatch electoral materials to the field two weeks before the day of election in order to anticipate and pre-empt any unforeseen contingencies. ELECAM intensified the revision of electoral registers until the October 7, 2018 presidential election in which its statistics indicate that by election day, over 6,600,192 Cameroonians were duly registered within the country and 19,356 abroad.

Following the number of registered voters, ELECAM attributed 24,988 polling stations within the country and 66 polling stations abroad. With the precision on registered voters, polling stations, ELECAM worked tooth and nail to provide the needed materials in the polling stations and other venues.

It awarded the contract for the printing of the ballot papers of the nine candidates for the October 7, 2018 election to the Cameroon News and Publishing Corporation (SOPECAM) and that for the production of all sorts of envelops to the National Printing Press.

All these materials once produced were transported and stocked at the Yaounde 101 Military Airbase for subsequent dispatching to the field. At the level of the Airbase, ELECAM recruited over 800 temporary workers whose assignments...