Figures published on February 23, 2016 indicate that the figure of 27,738 newly-registered youth has been hit one week before the 20-day deadline.

Staff at the Head Office of the elections management body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), were seen on February 23, 2016 rubbing their hands in total satisfaction. “We have just surpassed the target of 20,000 newly registered youth one week before the deadline of the nationwide 20-day operation which was launched on February 8, 2016,” said the Head of the Communication and Press unit, Bintou Sarr.

In effect as at Friday, February 19, 2016, ELECAM branches around the country had registered 27,738 youths during the operation which targeted 20,000 youth aged between 20 and 35 years. According to statistics from the 10 regional delegations presented in the form of a table, the West Region ranks first with 4,857 registered youth; North West is second with 3,620; North with 3,538 and South West with 3,534. At the Centre Regional Delegation which showcased 3,482 registered youths, officials attribute the good performance to a change in strategy.

“We adopted the same strategy used by evangelists, going beyond radio and banner messages to reach one after the other with personalised messages,” explained ELECAM’s Regional Delegate for the Centre, Joséphine Angèle Essama. However, the landmark performance was not obtained hitch-free as youth are still reticent and not well-informed about the electoral process. Understanding this quickly at the start of the operation, ELECAM teams educated target youth according to their doubts and reasons for reticence. Hence, a survey carried out in the University of Yaounde I revealed that only two out of 10 students were registered on electoral rolls.

Another sociological survey carried out on a sample of 1,000 in the Centre Region to find out if youths knew the missions of ELECAM, proved disappointing as ELECAM officials noticed the level of civic education amongst youths of voting age was rather below expectation, given that they receive basic civic education lessons from primary school. Sources at ELECAM’s Centre Regional Office blamed this on the increasing attachment of youth to social media and the minimum attention they give to issues around them.

While laying the blame of absence of political culture on political parties, ELECAM officials also castigated academic authorities in most institutions of higher learning for not acquiescing to ELECAM’s requests to lecture their students on the contribution of biometric registration to a credible electoral system and the role expected of youth. “Only the Protestant University of Central Africa accepted our request,” a staff disclosed.

However, ELECAM’s officials are hoping to swell their figures before the deadline as they intend to register even more youth when the end of semester examination period ends in the University of Yaounde II, Soa.