Biometric voters Registration and election timing

Biometric voters Registration and election timing

After my last article, many of you requested additional information which I did sent individually based on specific requests. Some of the questions are more general and frequent, so I attempt some answers in this note.

First many of you asked me if it was going to be possible to complete a biometric registration in Cameroon before the twin elections in July.

For a good biometric system, each country must first develop the system specifications, the operational procedures and Terms Of Reference (TORs). These three documents or chapters in the document look at the required outcome (end product), the operational environment, the available infrastructures, the human resource needs and mission critical timeframe. Based on these, the client (in this case  ELECAM) guided by technocrats or informed minds define  the conditions relating to the system suppliers which in most cases include: technical ability of the prospecting company to deliver, track record in biometric registration, cost, timing, durability of equipment, software quality, data matching, data security, transparency etc. 

Now if this internal work is completed by the middle or end of March 2012 and a Request For Proposal announced, it may take two weeks for national or international companies to send in their proposals. It will take a week or so for the ELECAM team to go through the proposals and select potential candidates.  Then the third stage will be for the preselected candidates to be invited to demonstrate their systems for final selection.  This phase is followed by award of the market(s) and it will take at least one month for the equipment to be shipped to Cameroon.

Assuming that the training of registration and polling agents will start before the bulk of the material is supplied; it will take nothing less than 1 month to train 25,000 registration and polling agents.  For this to happen, the supplier must first of all send into Cameroon some of the terminals for use during this training program.

The timeline produced by the above analysis therefore shows that a good biometric system to register 9-10 million voters will take between 2-5 months to implement. Note that when the training is completed and the materials are available, the effective registration process can take less than two weeks to capture all 10 million voters.  This is the duration which many political actors seem to base a lot of their argument of time on.  Based on this and on the fact that voters’ apathy is high and will require extensive mobilization and civic education, my honest opinion and recommendation will be for the elections to be postponed.

Many asked if biometric voters list will contribute to transparent elections in Cameroon. First let me make it clear here that biometric voters registration is just one in a long list of prerequisites to a free, fair and transparent election. It is by no means the lone magic answer. Issues relating to voting material and procedures as listed here must be addressed to accompany the biometric voters list towards a more credible electoral system in Cameroon’s democratic processes. But yes, the biometric is going to contribute greatly to transparency at the polls.

Positive moves so far in the Cameroon electoral system:

• Biometric voters register recompilation
• Unique electoral code in progress
• Online and SMS voters verification accepted
• Open consultation with political actors and stakeholders in progress

The role of these actors in pushing for the above reforms cannot be underestimated even if ELECAM and the government will often say its coming from them out of goodwill.  The work is but just about to begin.  The high voters’ apathy and the high cost and work load needed to drive the current processes cannot be carried by ELECAM alone or the government. Political parties as of now should be active in the field mobilizing and educating their militants towards the eventual recompilation. Civil society known to have the most mastery of the field and skilled in community mobilization will need to be involved and supported in such actions to bring civic education down to the communities especially the rural areas where it is needed the most. They civil society will also need to be involved in the formation of the commissions and teams relating to the voters registration and other aspects of the elections.  Diplomatic missions and funding partners will be required to show their support to this nation and for the sake of peace and stability  support ELECAM technically and otherwise in their mission.  This support will also need to be extended to the civil society and the private media houses towards this election.

Tanyi Christian E
CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation

E-mail: christian@lukmefcameroon.org 
Website: www.lukmefcameroon.org
Mission: To Promote Peace, Nonviolence, Social Justice and Sustainable Development in Cameroon