Cameroon: Diaspora Fail to Participate in Elections

Post originally Published on the Global Voices Online Special Coverage Page on Cameroon Election 2011. Also available in French.

Seven million Cameroonian voters were called to elect their next president on October 9, 2011. However, the question of the abstention seems to be the great winner of this ballot, in particular that of Cameroonians living abroad.

This year's election was significant for the reason that since August 8, 2011, [fr] Cameroonian citizens in the diaspora were allowed to vote for the first time.

Cameroonian Voters in Dakar.
Photo G. Esunge Fominyen on www.gefominyen.com (CC).

The Cameroonian population living abroad is estimated at between 2.5 million [fr] and 4 million people [fr]. According to an article published on allafrica.com [fr], this number varies because of administrative reasons:

Dans une récente interview, le Minitre des relations extérieures, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, expliquait que « d'une part, la carte consulaire du Cameroun ne couvre pas tous les pays d'émigration. D'autre part, même dans les pays pourvus de postes consulaires, la situation est très contrastée. D'une manière générale, nos compatriotes de la diaspora ne se font pas systématiquement enregistrer auprès des services consulaires. Outre une certaine indifférence, l'explication réside, soit dans l'ignorance de cette formalité, soit dans le fait que ceux qui se trouvent en situation irrégulière hésitent à sortir de l'anonymat.»

In a recent interview, the Minister of External Relations, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, explained that "on the one hand, the Cameroonian consulary card does not cover all countries of emigration. On the other hand, even in countries provided with consulates, the situation is very contrasted. Generally, our fellow citizens from the diaspora don't systematically register themselves with consulate services. In addition to a certain indifference, the explanation resides in the ignorance of such a  formality, or in the fact that those who live abroad in an irregular situations hesitate over renouncing their anonymity."

The decision to allow Cameroonians from the Diaspora to vote might be related to economic reasons. According to a 2011 World Bank report, Diaspora For Development in Africa, the potential savings of Cameroonian migrants within Cameroon is equivalent to 3.8 % of the GDP. Moreover, bank and other informal money transfers are estimated between 9 and 24 % of the GDP.
A financial manna perceived by every Cameroonians. Hotmongo ironically commented on this subject on Twitter :

La participation de la diaspora a l'économie c'est western union. LOL

The participation of the diaspora in the economy is Western Union. LOL

According to the Cameroonian Electoral Commission (ELECAM), 25,578 Cameroonians abroad registered on the voter list. At the time of the adoption of the voting decree, website Bonaberi.com [fr] published an article in which the author already doubted ELECAM's ability to register the estimated 2.5 million voters abroad :

Une opération dont on doute de sa réalisabilité, à deux mois de la date de l’élection présidentielle.

One can doubt of the feasibility of the operation, two months from the presidential election.

In fact, the presidential decree was signed on August, 8, 2011, and the deadline for voter registration was on August 31, 2011. Short delays added to a call from diaspora to boycott the election might have led to this result.

The CODE (an association gathering democratic and patriotic organisations of the Cameroonian diaspora - Collectif des Organisations Démocratiques et Patriotiques de la Diaspora Camerounaise) led the boycott movement. On its blog [fr], the organisation explains:

- [Nous] Réaffirmons notre farouche opposition à la mascarade électorale qui se déroule
actuellement au Cameroun et en diaspora ;
- Dénonçons par conséquent la poursuite d’un processus électoral mafieux, totalement
illégitime, et qui n’a pour but que de maintenir Paul Biya au pouvoir pour le grand
malheur du peuple camerounais.

- [We] reaffirm our staunch opposition to the electoral masquerade which is currently going on in Cameroon and in the diaspora;
- We therefore denounce the mafia electoral process as totally illigetimate, which only aims at maitaining Paul Biya in power for the great misfortune of the Cameroonian people.

In the following video posted on YouTube by Seumoprisma on October 8, members of the CODE in Belgium demonstrate to reminded Cameroonians in the diaspora that they must not vote on October 9 and instead call for Paul Biya to step down:

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kt6I5Zp_2zQ[/embed]

According to an article by the daily newspaper Le Jour, published on 237online [fr], among the 40,000 Cameroonians counted in France, only 900 went to vote. Paul Biya, the outgoing president, got 64.97% of the popular vote.

Ebot Tabi comments on Twitter:

If you look at the number registered and compared to the number of voters, you see that only the Biya people did vote

Ivory Coast presidential election: Ushahidi Platform Use Case

Here is a link to an article I wrote. It was published on the Ushahidi Blog.

Enjoy !

Ivory Coast presidential elections in the age of Web 2.0

Here is an article I wrote for Internet Without Borders website. You can also find a french version here.

Ivorian presidential elections Took place. After months of turmoil and wrangling, the Ivorians have taken part in the first round of elections held Sunday, October 31, 2010.

The holding of the first round in a calm general atmosphere was welcomed by most commentators in the mainstream international press and observers.
New this year, online participation of many citizens of Cote d'Ivoire who organized coverage of the election day using the variety of tools available on the Internet.     
  

Freedom of communication by SMS maintained

Contrary to the announcement of the Telecommunications Agency of Côte d'Ivoire (ATCI) last Saturday about the suspension of SMS, all means of communication were maintained. The regulator had proposed the measure for reasons of public order and to prevent the spread of "rumors". Prime Minister Guillaume Soro returned to this decision at a press conference Saturday afternoon. Maintenance by the Government of Freedom of Information and Communication in Côte d'Ivoire during the first round of elections would prove the political maturity of citizens and political actors. 

"Let us solve all our problems in peace" 

Note especially the initiative of Diaby Cheik Mohamed which reflects the general mood in the streets of Ivory Coast: the will to turn this election period in time of reconciliation. The Peacevote project encourages site visitors to leave messages for peaceful Côte d'Ivoire. Site promotion was done by many voices of culture in Côte d'Ivoire: Aicha Kone, Ismael Isaac ...

CoveritLive on the site Avenue225 

Israel Yoroba, a journalism student and blogger and his team of Avenue225, Ivorian information site, made the story of voting and the general atmosphere prevailing in various parts of Côte d'Ivoire. Coverage outside major cities brought a wealth of additional information. Throughout the day, real-time information of events was ensured by CoveritLive application.

The France24 Observers


An interesting coverage was also put in place by France24 Observers. Thanks to two citizen journalists, we were informed that agents of the Electoral Independant Commission (IEC) were still waiting to receive wages for their work in polling stations.

 
The Election Buzz on Twitter 

On the social network Twitter, hashtags #civ2010 #wonzomai and  #peacevote, typed hundreds of times, are also a source of information for obtaining real-time news on the election by the citizens of Côte d'Ivoire: For instance incidents in polling stations in the Paris area were immediately reported by Twitter usersvia their mobile phones. The user @ MaryMary225 reported pushings and damages caused in Créteil (France).
Thanks to these elections, the Ivorian Twitter community has been strenghthened: New twitter accounts were updated and created, as notices by Twitter user Toussine

And many like Boua_7 describe the atmosphere in the country waiting for the results

Election results monitored and updated online

AlldenY, A french web dev and strategies company, put in place a website where citizens and others can find the results of the ballot as given by the EIC. Graphs give an interesting overview of trends.

The platform Wonzomai 

The platform deployed by Akendewa and Internet without Borders, Wonzomai, is a new experience in Francophone Africa. More than one Thousand visitors were well connected on Election Day, less than a week after its launch. It has mainly contributed to the Ivorian citizen outside who could thus have a glimpse of the vital information collected via Twitter.

One difficulty, appeared: automatic replication of information received via SMS has not worked properly on election day for technical reasons. However, a manual transcription of major incidents and statements received was made by Internet Without Borders and Akendewa teams. Also the necessity to link the various election monitoring organizations on the ground and teams that  operate for the platform became obvious.



What about Facebook ?        


Hundreds of thousands of Ivorians are connected to the social networking site Facebook. As well as reviews and politics discussions occured among users, candidates have used the network to campaign, for instance the outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo, whom many users  left messages of encouragement during the campaign. Ivorian Internet users have also shared their photographs on voting day. For example Nnenna Nwakanma subscribed on Faceboo who posted the link to an album created specially for the occasion.