Like all human beings that must go through the natural process of growth; learning to sit, creep, stand and walk, almost all institutions that are created incidentally follow a growing process.

The most developed nations today started from scratch and evolved with time to near perfection, but none can today claim full perfection. Created in 2006 on the heels of controversies surrounding past elections in Cameroon, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), was assigned the arduous task of righting the wrongs of the past, beginning with the October 09 Presidential Election.

The anxiety in seeing things change for the better and fast too, blocked some minds to understand that such change cannot come all of a sudden. It is certainly in taking all these teething challenges into consideration that the President-elect, Paul Biya in his “Thank You Message” to the nation last Tuesday, October 25, included the electoral body on the list of those on whom he showered his congratulations. After casting his vote at the Government Bilingual School in Bastos on October 09, Mr Biya described ELECAM as a young organisation which has already “done much in the positive direction”, but as he said, “perfection is not a thing of this World”. In cognisance of this therefore, he urged Cameroonians to be indulgent vis a vis “eventual imperfections” from the organisation, stating that no one had any intention of cheating.

ELECAM, one must admit, is in its embryonic stage and its performance to some actors seems to have gone the extra mile. As an organisation that is operating within the precincts of the law, ELECAM, from every indication has been working along those lines. Taking into consideration the prescriptions of the law creating the electoral body, it becomes quite clear, that its success is far from being a single-handed affair. At almost every stage of the electoral process, ELECAM is expected to work with representatives of all political actors, including the administration and political parties. This dispensation translates the zeal to ensure efficiency which in this sense is a product of checks and balances.

ELECAM is accused of having faltered in the registration process, notably in the distribution of electoral cards, among others. It is equally blamed for mishandling elections at polling stations. This blame comes notably from some political parties that sent in candidates for the election but who were incidentally unable to send their representatives to all polling stations. The absence of representatives of political parties at many polling stations can equally be considered as having contributed to the inefficiency of ELECAM, so to say. But how inefficient, is inefficiency, is the question on some lips.

That said, the President-elect in his message sounded assuring in oiling democratic institutions to better their functioning during his next seven-year mandate, but this will better be accomplished if all hands are put on deck. “Together, we will make Cameroon an emerging country, that is, a country with strong democratic institutions, enjoying strong and sustainable growth based on social justice”, he said. The substratum of this message is the whole idea of working as a team, which is what ELECAM wants from Cameroonians. Its officials are quite aware and have been assuring, and that is why the future remains promising.