President Biya, appoints former SDO, governor to Electoral board

In a bid to strengthen the much criticized Elections Cameroon—ELECAM, President Biya has in a Presidential Decree announced Thursday evening, appointed two former Civil Administrators to the Electoral Board. The two are Enow Abrams Egbe and Haman Dairou.

Both are graduates of the National School of Administration and Magistracy, ENAM, and have served many communities of the country as District Officers, Senior Divisional Officers and as Governor in the case of Abrams Egbe.

Egbe was Governor of Adamawa and South Regions before later being sent to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation as Inspector General. Dairou is former SDO for Upper Nkam in the Littoral Region, Vina in the Adamawa and until Thursday’s appointment, he was Secretary General at Southwest Governor’s office. The two will join amongst others, former colleague, Louis Eyeya Zanga who used to be Governor of South West Province too.

The appointment of the duo brings to 18, members of the Electoral Board of ELECAM. The Electoral Board is the highest decision making body of the election monitoring organization.

The Elections management body has since been weakened following the conflict between former Director General, Mohaman Sani Tanimou and the Board Chairman, Fonkam Azu’u. It was not until the former was replaced in July 2015 by Abdoulaye Babale, following another Presidential Decree that order returned to the body.

However, ELECAM is still begging for credibility as Cameroonians challenge the legitimacy of the body since it is not independent, – it largely depends on the will of Biya, and some of its members like the Board Chair and Dorothy Njeuma are known supporters of the CPDM party of Biya. Their job is also being compounded by the high rate of voter apathy in Cameroon. A recent door-to-door campaign by the body to have people register to vote has not greatly changed things.

Even though the decree read on state television did not say so, these two gentlemen are certainly replacing Bishop Dieudonne Watio, who resigned from ELECAM in November 2015 and Abdoulaye Babale who was promoted to Director General of ELECAM.

Article by: By Tapuka Gerald