Voter Registration: Community Radios Involved

E lections Cameroon (ELECAM) has recently embarked on proximity campaign, through the use of community radios to get as many citizens of voting age as possible have adequate information on the electoral process, hence their registration. For the current year, ELECAM targets improving its electoral database by having 10 million persons enlist their names on the registers, enhance a more inclusive participatory approach and enrich its transparency. Going by the statistics of the last Electoral Board meeting of June 20, 2023, the Board Chair, Enow Abrams Egbe revealed that some 225,879 new potential voters have been registered, representing an increase of more than four per cent as compared to last year. Amongst the total number are 82,995 women, 160,120 youths and 231 persons with physical challenges, bringing the total number to 7, 380, 944 registered persons. As the official date for the close of electoral registers thus draws near (August 31 as stated in Article 74 (2) of the Electoral Code), the institution is multiplying its strategies at attaining its objectives. One of such strategies is using community radios. In what they term “café media,” officials of the elections management body use the programme which is usually 30 minutes long to educate the local community on the need for participating in the electoral process. It is done in two forms, either ELECAM officials participate in the programme or radio hosts in the various communities carryout the information/sensitisation campaign. They argue that not everybody in the rural areas listen to prime time newscast or special programmes of Elections Cameroon and when the information is taken to them, their sense of belonging is heightened and political awareness increased. Currently, the proximity campaign is ongoing in the Centre, East, Adamawa and South Re...