Board member Professor Mrs. Dorothy Njeuma made the revelation during a press briefing in Buea.

ELECAM board member, Professor Mrs. Dorothy Njeuma has returned from a visit of the six Divisions of the South West Region with a basket of problems: poor roads, lack of identity cards, material and financial means for ELECAM workers to carry out their duties, no network or unstable network due to no electricity. In spite of these difficulties, the number of registered voters’ has shot up to 94.000.

Although she made it to the Divisions, it was an arduous task because she had to travel in some cases through different regions to arrive at Divisions in the South West Region. This was the case when she had to reach Lebialem through Dschang in the West Region. Same as she had to travel through Bamenda, Batibo, Widikum to arrive Mamfe in Manyu Division in the South West Region. The same difficulties were faced when she traveled from to Tombel. She harped on the almost impassable road from Nguti to Mbakwa Supe painting a picture of parked broken down vehicles beside the road with deep ditches.

During a press briefing in Buea on Monday, she said many people complained about the high cost of certificates of nationality and identity cards which in certain areas cost as much FCFA 15.000 to obtain. However, she promised that all these inconveniences will tabled to the judiciary and the police authorities for appropriate solutions to be provided. However, she enumerated that the problems will not hinder the work of ELECAM. There is the hope that with dry season at hand, more will be done for ELECAM to move into the hinterland.

She advised members of political parties in commissions not to leave everything in the hands of ELECAM. “You belong to political parties that have something at stake and your parties especially those represented at the National Assembly benefit from state funds. You should therefore take care of your commission members. Let political parties ensure that their members are present at all times in their commissions in other to avoid complains there after.” She said old registers will be revamped and names of death persons or those who have moved from their areas of last registration be deleted.

Professor Dorothy Njeuma assured doubting Thomases that polling stations will no longer be in Chiefs Palaces. “After all there are schools almost everywhere nowadays. ELECAM is for all political parties. People are now having confidence in ELECAM. ELECAM is forging ahead with its work with political parties collaborating. Transparency is ELECAM’s watchword,” she said. She advised Cameroonians to register their names early enough to avoid the usual last minute rush.

Replying to a journalist who asked to know the sources of ELECAM’s funding, she said the main source of ELECAM’s money comes from the Government and funds are also accepted from international bodies. She strongly holds that the nine million target of registered voters is attainable with the dry season, the office to office and house to house registration. A view the Regional Delegate of ELECAM Njang Emmanuel holds.