Electoral Process : Advancing Democracy Through Inclusive Dialogue

Prior to the commencement of the next electoral cycle in Cameroon, Elections Cameroon, within its objective of rendering the electoral process as inclusive and as credible as possible, has organised a national consultation with other stakeholders of the electoral process. Comprising mostly political parties and civil society organisations, the leaders met in Yaounde on November 26, 2024 within the framework of the second edition of the national consultation platform between ELECAM and other stakeholders of the electoral process. Deliberations were chaired by the Chairperson of the Electoral Board of ELECAM, Dr. Enow Abrams Egbe, under the theme, “Peaceful Electoral Dialogue: A Pillar of Democratic Governance.” 
The second edition comes on the heels of certain weaknesses identified such as below-average electoral and democratic education, a fairly accurate understanding of the particular role each stakeholder has to play, shortcomings in the political consensus influenced by general interest, as well as the absence of an early alert mechanism that can, in the era of ICT, serve to forestall and mitigate the adverse effects of disinformation, fake news and the proliferation of hate speech. These are aspects that often cause tensions in electoral operations, and the stakeholders were therefore meeting to seek improvements to the identified loopholes. 
Concretely, the Yaounde meeting sets out to raise awareness and build the capacities of key stakeholders of the electoral process on permanent peaceful electoral dialogue, with a view to achieve credible, non-violent and transparent elections in 2025-2026. Specific objectives of the consultation are to design an early alert mechanism for the prevention of election-related violence, fine-tune appropriation of the role of every stakeholder and consider capacity building, evaluate recommendations adopted in the past editions (August-Septemb...