CIVIL SOCIETY/SYNDICATES FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY( The Bamenda Declaration)

CIVIL SOCIETY/SYNDICATES  FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY

The Bamenda Declaration

The Civil Society/Syndicates Forum for Democracy in its 10^th session holding in Bamenda on August 20, 2011,  and after profound reflex ion on the current electoral process in Cameroon, hereby makes what will hence forward be referred to as “The Bamenda Declaration.”

The Forum, having monitored the build-up to the up-coming elections, holds that in the current circumstances, a fair, free and transparent election is inconceivable, as evidenced by the following facts:

1)    The organisation and set up of ELECAM gives more powers to the Directorate, which is not answerable to the Board, its supposed policy making organ. That the Director General can take decisions and only inform the Board later seriously compromises the Board’s independence.

2)    The hasty and questionable process of the Diaspora registration leaves many doubts as to the actual intention behind the Diaspora vote. It is impossible for ELECAM to register 04million voters within two weeks in a wide and dispersed Diaspora when it could not register 02 million in Cameroon within one year.

3)    The August 2011 law granting voting rights to Cameroonians in the diaspora is in contradiction with the 2006 law creating ELECAM as the sole organ in charge of organizing elections and referenda. While it is a law that created ELECAM, it is a decree that defines the rights and conditions of the diaspora vote. This makes the diaspora vote illegal.

4)    We note that government’s hostile reaction to Transparency International’s efforts to boost electoral registration demonstrates the fact that it is the government that is actually in control of the electoral process and not ELECAM. In fact it casts shadows on the sincerity of government’s interest in a massive voter turn-out during this election.

5)    The announcement by ELECAM of the registration of 07million voters instead of approximately 02millions, implying its rejection of the popular outcry against the controversial registration list of 5 million voters it inherited from MINATD, is evidence of its intention to manipulate voters’ lists and the entire process.

CAUTION

6)    Following intelligence pointing to imminent interference with social communication networks during the election period, the Forum warns all telecommunication service providers and authorities against any such infringement of the people’s freedom of expression and communication. Whoever carries out such infringement must be prepared to bear full responsibility for its outcome.

In the light of all the foregoing, the Forum calls on the Head of State to take prompt and meaningful steps towards ensuring free, fair and transparent elections at home and in the Diaspora. These steps logically include revisiting all recent laws and Executive decisions which are not consonant with fairness and transparency.

As a reminder, the Forum calls on ELECAM to:

a)     Start a completely new registration process

b)    Make accessible its electoral data base to the public

c)     Provide access to registration centres to all stakeholders

d)    Provide access to its election software to stakeholders.

Done in Bamenda this 20th August 2011

Victor Epie’Ngome (Steering Committee member)

Technology and democracy in Cameroon

It is interesting that ELECAM thought of using a real database in the electoral process. The database donated by UNDP whose functionality is not known to the political actors and which was unfortunately widely publicize seem to us the civil society and syndicates to be a democratic suicidal pill delivered to Cameroon by UNDP. We have observed with disappointment active effort of the UNDP to promote and uphold the database irrespective of the public complains and request to access and asses the effectiveness of the system.   

There has been no meaningful dialogue between stakeholders and ELECAM as to the application of modern technology in the advancement of democracy. From simple voter verification by sms to voter registration promotion by sms has been either delayed or out rightly refused by ELECAM and intrusively by the state.

The civil society and syndicates must therefore double efforts in the use of technology in the electoral process by pushing ahead discussions, supporting and reviewing proposed solutions together with ELECAM and other experts to eliminate the fears and suspicions that now give sleepless nights to the ELECAM team.

The following systems are in place as technology towards the elections and should be jointly reviewed and adopted by the proposing organizations/institutions, ELECAM and the civil society:

1.      The Database donated by UNDP

2.      The voter verification system proposed and tested by LUKMEF

3.      The voters registration by Transparency international Cameroon

4.      The Ushahidi event monitoring system by LAGA and Kick-corruption

Based on the current situations, it is likely that the internet and mobile communication networks may be tampered with around the election days. Remember that twitter has once been targeted for shutdown in Cameroon and that discussions have also been held targeting other social medias.

We must therefore be ready for such worst case scenarios.

THE STATE OF THE VOTERS REGISTRATION

STATE OF THE VOTERS REGISTRATION

Less than two months to the elections, no one can say with certainty how many Cameroonians are effectively registered. We have noted with disappointment the careful and systematic exclusion of the civil society in the registration process by carefully frustrating any efforts by the civil society to promote and monitor voters’ registration. The list inherited by ELECAM from MINATD which they openly admitted has many inconsistencies and needed to be cleaned has not been cleaned many months after inheritance and few weeks before the elections. The software being used in the process remains a mystery to many political actors, the civil society and the syndicates as no one has been granted official access and assessment of the system. The president of ELECAM  is in record for publicly stating that there may be no way to fully eliminate double registrations in the list. While ELECAM refused total recompilation of the list on grounds that there was limited means and time, President Fonkam has been again in record saying they hope to reach 9 million voters registration by the end of August even making shameful reference to Nigeria where over 73 million voters were registered in less than two months in the electoral list.  It must be noted that all figures given by ELECAM are based on figures from the unclean list plus new registrations which in many cases are still individuals likely to be in the old list.  Understandably, there is double counting in the figures being made public by ELECAM.  Mindful of these contradicting and confusing statements and statistics, the civil society and syndicates call on ELECAM to come clean and do good to grant unrestricted access to information relating to the electoral process.

Government crakdown on civil society actions towards democracy

Hope you are reading these reactions and trying to help to advance our national democracy. We must know that while some of these guys are trying to frustrate every effort to advance our democracy, there are also good guys among them who think positively. Some of these guys are simply caught in a web where they are fearful of nothing but fear of the unknown. Let us understand that change can come through one individual even in the pool of those who want to maintain the status quo. All we need is a free, fair, peaceful and transparent election whose outcome is accepted by all Cameroonians.  I understand that we as the civil society do not have preference to who gets up there provided he/she understands, protect and advance our national values.

The current panic and frustration is to me understandable when you think of the life some of our statesmen have been living and now risk it to transparency and accountability.  I have cautioned many times that we must not always qualify everyone in the same category when people who should protect the law and the civic rights of citizens choose to violate them.  We have seen many acting without instructions from above using the state authority for their backing.  Such will not continue at least now that we Cameroonians are fully aware of the fact that there are only some few individuals who are manipulating the laws for selfish gains.

Once again I will like that we keep the spirits high but must understand that our national peace and unity is a priority and we must protect and promote it at all cost. We must show love to those who try to provoke us into any type of unlawful actions. Whoever is trying to cover-up in chaos must be assured that peaceful and patriotic resistance to evil and committed moves to uphold our national pride and values is what Cameroonians are interested in now. We must promote dialogue even in situations that some may consider as doom. We are Cameroonians and remain Cameroonians till death. We must understand that we are not always completely right nor are our opponents always completely wrong. This is to remind us that in the most difficult of situations, there is a window of opportunity to resolve it somehow.  Let’s keep looking for that window of opportunity by actively engaging all actors (the government, the civil society, the syndicates, ELECAM, the Citizens, our Cameroon Friends and God). We must learn to pick up the stones thrown at us by those who hate us and use it as supportive corner stones of peace and love.  Never throw the stone back at the enemy.

Let us keep some of this in our Bamenda agenda tomorrow.