By Boris Esono Nwenfor
BUEA, January 18, 2024 – The former Regional president of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Party Hon Michel Nintcheu, has accused the electoral body in Cameroon, ELECAM, of working to maintain incumbent President Paul Biya in power.
The non-progression of voter registration figures, despite the enthusiasm of Cameroonians to register on the electoral rolls, has prompted Hon. Jean Michel Nintcheu, President of Front for Change in Cameroon, FCC, to conclude, according to the Horizon Newspaper.
With just over 7.3 million Cameroonians registered so far, Hon Michel Nintcheu accused ELECAM of doctoring figures to give the ruling CPDM an upper hand. He said in successive elections, the voter registration figure had stayed at 7 million, even though new registrations are announced all over the country.
Statistics published by ELECAM show that the Centre region occupied the first position in terms of the number of registered voters with One million three hundred and three thousand three hundred and sixty-seven (1,303,376). Of this number 735,603 are male, while 567,773 are female.
The Far North region came second with one million One Hundred and Ninety-Three thousand Five hundred and forty-two registered voters, 608,912 of whom are male and 584630 are female. The Littoral with One Million, 122 thousand, 338 registered voters, comprising 467,545 females and 654,793 males came third. It is followed by the West Region with 839,687 registered voters, made up of 438,377 females and 401,310 males.
In the fifth position is the North Region with 749, 906 registered voters, comprising 350,686 women and 399,220 men. The North West on the 6th position had 610,778 registered voters, comprising 328,620 women and 282,150 men.
The Adamawa in the 7th position had 479,030 registered voters, comprising 213,718 women and 265,312 men. Meanwhile, the South West in the 8th position had 390,089 registered voters, 208,823 of whom were male, and 181,266 were female. For its part, the East in the 9th position registered 355,116 voters, 155,286 of them women and 199,830 of them male.
The South Region in 10th position had 299,076 registered voters, 134,472 of whom were female and 164,604 male. For Cameroonians abroad, there were 19,937 registered voters, comprising 6,652 females and 12,285 males.
Erik Essousse, Director General of Elections, explained that there was a complete overhaul of the electoral rolls in 2013 when registration started from scratch, which explains the number of registered voters so far. The elections boss said it was the various Electoral supervisory Commissions that were responsible for cleaning the electoral rolls and declaring the number of Cameroonians registered.
