Cameroon ends 2024 biometric voter registration drive with 755k new enrollments

The Director General in charge of Elections at Cameroon’s elections management agency (ELECAM), Dr Erik Essousse, says 755,085 new potential voters were biometrically enrolled on the electoral register in 2024.

Essousse gave the figures during a recent press conference in Yaounde to present an early balance sheet of the eight-month exercise that was launched on January 4 this year.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, the figures are tentative because a de-duplication process is awaited. Notwithstanding, he mentioned that the new figure takes the total number of names in the country’s voter registration database to 8,116,960, also pending a clean-up exercise.

Essousse used his presser to express gratitude to all stakeholders who contributed in various ways to encourage voters to enlist their names in the electoral register. He also gave a pat on the back of ELECAM staff, especially those who operate in areas with major security challenges such as in the two English-speaking regions where an armed conflict has been raging for the past eight years.

From the figures given by Essousse, 443,270 of the newly registered Cameroonians are men, representing 58.70 percent of the total number, while 311,815 are women. Per the figures 64.88 percent of all those registered are youth, while 654 persons living with disabilities also enrolled their names.

In the diaspora, 8,830 persons were registered, with Essousse saying that the process went on smoothly in all of the country’s diplomatic and consular missions.

“We are very satisfied with our action in the diaspora because since the outbreak of COVID-19, our activities were disrupted. Once we had the opportunity to relaunch our activities abroad, we did so. This year, we visited all the 46 diplomatic and consular missions around the world. We are happy that the voter registration process unfolded smoothly in the diaspora,” he told reporters.

The 2024 voter registration window in Cameroon shut down on Saturday August 31, in accordance with Section 74 (2) of the electoral law.

In line with the law, ELECAM has the task of cleaning up the electoral database and publishing the final figure for this year by the end of December, at the latest.

Meanwhile, ELECAM has also announced that preparations are being finalised to commence the printing of biometric voter’s cards using newly acquired machines.

However, a source at ELECAM told Biometric Update that the new voter’s ID printing solution is still being tested and detailed information about the process and supplier will be made public soon.

In May, EELCAM  said it had secured funding to procure new biometric voter registration kits, to replace those in use since 2012.

Cameroon has crucial presidential elections in October next year, and Regional Council elections will follow in December.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  Cameroon  |  ELECAM  |  elections  |  voter registration