The Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) Divisional Committee to boost voter registration ahead of the upcoming presidential elections in Kupe-Muanenguba Division, South West Region, has disclosed that thus far, the Division has enlisted 12,042 new voters on electoral registers. Combined with the old list, the Division now has over 22,602 voters in its quest to get some 75,000 people to vote before the Electoral College is convened.

The Divisional Committee headed by its Chairman, Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, also Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, made the disclosure on Saturday May 28 in Bangem, Divisional headquarters of Kupe-Muanenguba during the 4^th evaluation meeting of the exercise. It emerged from the various reports presented by the different leaders of the three sections of the party in the Division that Kupe-Muanenguba 1, Bangem, has 2, 467 new voters and 2,822 old, Kupe-Muanenguba II, Nguti, 2,894 new and 2,801 old voters while Kupe-Muanenguba III, Tombel, has registered 6,326 new voters to add to the 5,424 old voters.

Addressing a mammoth crowd of party militants who turned up at the Bangem Conference Hall for the evaluation exercise, Prof. Ngolle Ngolle said from the standpoint of development, reputation, comparison with other Divisions as well as participation in nation-building, voter registration is like a national census. “We should not be absentee citizens, democracy is participatory”, he said. The Minister described the presidential decision to render the acquisition of identity cards as a window of opportunity the population should use to the fullest. “We still have 90 days and with the good news of free issue of identity cards by the Head of State, we hope that we will live up to expectation”, he said. Everybody, he added, is passionate. “We think Kupe-Muanenguba will deliver the goods when the time comes. The CPDM and Cameroon as a whole can count on Kupe-Muanenguba”, the Minister reassured.

With the Western Bakossi and other remote areas still to be reached and with more than 5,000 potential voters already identified in those areas and many more, the Divisional Committee was upbeat they could reach and even go beyond their target. Some of the resolutions reached to further boost the registration process included the full participation of traditional rulers in the sensitisation of their subjects as well as a joint identification and ELECAM team to move to the hinterlands wherein cards will be issued and holders registered on the spot.