Almost a year before the next presidential election, supposed to be held in October 2025, the Cameroonian People Democratic Movement (CPDM) is leading a low-profile voter registration campaign
If this campaign goes incognito, it is mainly because the ruling party does not prioritize mass registrations. Invariably, several party officials indicate that this choice is that of the Central Committee. Which is not wrong. On January 10, Jean Nkuete, the secretary general of the CPDM Central Committee, signed a circular relating to the revision of the electoral lists this year. In this document, Jean Nkuete recommends that party executives get involved in “the registration on the electoral lists of duly identified activists, sympathizers, friends and supporters of the CPDM”.
In an article published a few days later in the columns of the newspaper L’Action, published by the CPDM, the editorial team offers a reading of Jean Nkuete’s circular: “After having established a local work plan, it is a question here for each basic manager or any commission assigned to the task, to identify all activists, friendly activists and supporters of the party “duly identified” and not yet registered on the ELECAM lists and have them registered. It is therefore not a question of registering for the sake of registering, or even registering everyone.”
The undecided
This choice for targeted registrations is not trivial. According to an official from the Flame Party who speaks on condition of anonymity, with the massive registrations, it sometimes happens that more opposition activists are registered than party activists. The latter recalls that he and his comrades learned this the hard way in cosmopolitan cities during the last combined legislative and municipal elections, which were held in February 2020.
The CPDM also wants to ensure that all those responsible for its political leadership, from the grassroots committees, at the bottom of the ladder, to the Central Committee, are all registered on the electoral lists. Political scientist Pierre Nka also believes that, in addition to banking on its activists, the CPDM will also make eyes at undecided voters who are convinced that a voter card under these conditions can have benefits before or after the electoral process.
Opposite, the opposition has chosen a completely different approach than that of the CPDM by betting on massive registrations with door-to-door campaigns in cities and countryside. The opposition leaders are all unanimous that the first step towards victory in 2025 is to increase the size of the electoral register. Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), the body responsible for organizing elections in Cameroon, announces just over 7.5 million people registered. Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), Paul Biya’s main opponent, maintains that the Cameroonian population of voting age is around 15 million. He is convinced that if the number of registrants increases considerably towards the 15 million mark, it is certain that it will not be possible for the CPDM to win in 2025. Even if all the opponents add in unison that he will also have to monitor the vote…
SBBC