allAfrica.com: Cameroon: ELECAM - No Room For Fraud, Manipulation in Elections (Page 1 of 1)

Elections Cameroon have full powers to manage all the processes of future elections in Cameroon.

Cameroonians and the international community are awaiting June 2008 when the new independent elections managing body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), will fully come into force. Members of Parliament voted the bill creating ELECAM in November 2006 and the Head of State promulgated the law creating the structure on 29 December 2006. The law stated that ELECAM would come into full force 18 months from the day of its enactment into law, meaning June 2008.

Prime Minister, Head of Government Ephraim Inoni is currently consulting political party leaders and those of the civil society to get their proposals on the calibre of personalities to be appointed into the board of ELECAM. A high-level Commonwealth delegation is also in the country assessing the progress made in view of putting in place ELECAM. The leader of the Commonwealth delegation, Mark Stephens, Adviser and Head of the Democracy Section, Political Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, has promised the continuous engagement of the organisation to build the capacities of the various actors of ELECAM to ensure its independence in managing future elections and referenda.

Actors in all future elections and referenda in Cameroon look up to ELECAM with hopes of having greater transparency in elections. This is because the law creating the structure specifies that, "Elections Cameroon shall organise, manage and supervise elections and referendums". Section 4 paragraph two of the same law states, "Elections Cameroon shall be vested with the requisite powers to perform its duties". To ensure efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out its duties, ELECAM has two organs. One is the Electoral Board that "shall ensure compliance with the electoral law of all stakeholders for the purposes of guaranteeing regular, impartial, free, fair, transparent and credible polls", Section six paragraph one of the 29 December 2006 law states. The second organ is the General Directorate of Elections responsible for the organisation and management of the poll under the supervision of the Electoral Board. The law further empowers members of ELECAM by stating that they, "shall under no circumstances seek, or receive instructions or orders from a public or private authority during the performance of their duties". The law further makes it clear that they "may not be prosecuted, investigated, arrested, detained or tried for their views and actions in the performance of their duties".

The two organs of ELECAM with their specific duties give all the indications that future elections in Cameroon will be more transparent. ELECAM greatly departs from the National Elections Observatory (NEO) that controlled and supervised the 2002 and 2007 council and legislative elections and the 2004 presidential election. While ELECAM shall manage the entire electoral process, NEO only controlled and supervised the elections and the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation (MINATD) organised the elections. NEO also has not permanent elections managing organ whose work is supervised by another supra -organ as is the case with ELECAM. The role of the administration in previous elections controlled by NEO was greatly contested by many actors in the electoral process. ELECAM therefore takes care of their grievances.

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