Over 150 Students who performed a month holiday job with the Kumba City Council have been sabotaged by the Council authorities. Their payments for a job well done were temporally held until they register on the ELECAM list to vote in 2018. It saddens BaretaNews to know that instead to teach the students the necessity to register and vote, the authorities are engaging in a military style to get Cameroonians to register.

BaretaNews noticed that the decision was a deliberate act that was planned carefully with authorities of ELECAM in Meme Division. The students in realizing this decision finally succumbed to the Council’s pressure after agitating. Each student would then go on to receive the sum of 50,000 FCFA from the Kumba City Council after registering on the ELECAM list.

It should be recalled that Cameroonians do not trust ELECAM – the body who organizes elections in the Cameroon. The government has not shown any zeal in making the body independent. ELECAM members are appointed by the Head of State and all are members and/or sympathizers of CPDM-the ruling party. Cameroonians are of the impression that registering and voting will not change the outcome of the results as such this explains the lukewarmness Cameroonians attaches to the electoral process. BaretaNews could understand the student’s refusal to register on the electoral list.

BaretaNews thinks that authorities should not force Cameroonians to register. Cameroonians should be taught in primary and secondary schools the necessity of civic education and this should be translated into real life- something which is rare in the Cameroons. The need to register should flow naturally from Cameroonians and if people think that their votes do not count, going out to register talkless of voting would be problematic. The regime still has a long way to go. Surprisingly, the regime always loves a low voter turnout and the maintenance of the status quo.

The only possible outcome of changing the status quo will be for Cameroonians to register massively, vote and defend their vote even if it means blood needs to spill. That is the only possible outcome because the military, police, and judiciary where the Cameroons people could turn to, are all owned by Paul Biya and cannot help the Cameroons people.

God is still saying something.

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