L'Effort Camerounais (English Version): Nominees for ELECAM should be revealed”

Aloysius Agendia Drfabien

Political scientist, election expert and international lecturer, Dr Fabien Nkot, has told journalists in Douala during a seminar on Elections Reporting, that political leaders, civil authorities and other persons and groups that propose members for appointment to the President of the Republic, into ELECAM, should make public the identities of those potential nominees.

Doctor Fabien Nkot was one of the advisers of Cameroon government ahead of the creation of the Cameron electoral body known as Elections Cameroon (Elecam).According to him, political party leaders and other persons contacted to make propositions for Elecam should always reveal their lists and nominees for the public to know. He says this will permit the public to be able to judge if the President of the Republic follows the advice and suggestions of the persons and groups he or his close collaborators usually contact. Politicians, civil society authorities amongst others were all contacted before the appointment of members for the National Elections Observatory (NEO).These very persons and groups of persons were also contacted ahead of the drafting of the bill on Elections Cameron.

However, none of them has ever bothered to reveal the propositions they made. Unfortunately, the very persons especially leaders of political parties and civil society authorities are often very quick to criticise the appointments made by the President. Dr Fabien Nkot says, to help the growing democracy in Cameroon and to assist Cameroonians make a better appreciation of the such appointments by the head of state, it is very important that those contacted for such nominations make their suggestions known to Cameroonians. "How shall we know their propositions when they did not reveal it to the public" Dr Fabien wonders aloud. This idea of Dr Fabien is also shared by Dr Diana Acha Morfaw president of the National Elections Observatory. Dr Diana Acha Morfaw says she does not understand why people refuse to talk but claim to have made proposals for people to be appointed to a public office. It because of this silence of political and civil society leaders after such consultations that an observer says "perhaps most suggestions made by political parties are not on basis of independence and moral rectitude, but usually guided by party and tribal lines".

A civil society leader Dr Hialaire Kamga president of the human rights group Nouveau Droit de L'Homme (NDH) says it is absolutely necessary for those contacted to reveal the names of the people they propose. He noted that sooner or later the Prime Minister or the Presidency of the Republic will begin consulting political and civil society leaders as well as religious and traditional authorities on possible names of persons to be members of ELECAM. It is very imperative that those contacted tell us who they have suggested so that when the list is finally published, the public can better know whether their suggestions were taken into account or not. He says it is useless for any body to cry foul on the criteria for nominations or dismiss some of the appointees when they did not reveal the names of those they proposed. Dr Fabian Nkot, Dr Diana Acha Morfaw, and Dr Hilaire Kamga all agree in separate discussions that revealing names of persons nominated for Elecam will not only go a long way to improve on our democracy, but will also show some degree of honesty and transparency. It will also go a long way to influence the choice of the Head of State who will certainly not want to move too far from suggestions of the persons he consulted.