2018 elections: Abdoulaye Babale out of the game

The President of the Republic has appointed a new director general of elections at Elections Cameroon.

After the board of directors of Elections Cameroon, Elecam, met in an extra ordinary session on Friday, May 25, 2018, and judging from the final communiqué that sanctioned the deliberations, it was very visible that the director general of elections, Abdoulaye Babale would be dismissed from his functions as the board made a suggestion in that light to the President of the Republic.

The board accused Abdoulaye Babale of failing to regularly attend board meetings, opaque management of human, material and financial resources among other administrative faults committed during his reign.

Abdoulaye Babale is equally accused of gross absence on the field at the wake of important elections that Elecam is to organise this year. The board after examining field reports relative to the organization of the different elections discovered that all is not well especially with decentralized workers of Elecam who showed demotivating signs following the way they are managed under the auspices of the director general of elections.

The 2018 elections to be organized by Elections Cameroon shall hold in a difficult context especially in the North West and South West regions hit by the ongoing “anglophone crisis”, and Abdoulaye Babale is quoted to have made an open statement, that if the tension in the two regions do not reduce, polling stations there could be delocalized  to safer regions.

He made the statement recently while responding to reporters during a seminar organised in the Littoral region, Douala, on how to improve on election organizations in the country.

Though the board of directors of Elecam headed by former governor, Enow Abrams Egbe did not accuse former minister, Abdoulaye Babale of direct embezzlement of funds, a report from the supreme state control after an audit at Elecam however indicts him of siphoning more than 2 billion FCFA, money earmarked for the purchase of election kits ahead of the polls billed for this year in Cameroon.

It should be noted that the page is not all that dark for Abdoulaye Babale since after the second senatorial elections organized in Cameroon this year, most national and international observers gave a pass mark to Elecam for a successful organization of the polls.

By appointing a new director general of elections at Elecam, President Paul Biya endorses the position of the board of directors of Elecam.

The New Director General of Elections

Two presidential decrees of today May 28, 2018 appointed a new director general of elections at Elecam and a deputy director general.

Mr Essousse Erik from the Nkam Division in the Adamawa region, born in 1951was appointed as the new director general of elections. Before his appointment, he was at the ministry of Territorial Administration precisely at the division of political affairs.

He shall be assisted by Abdoul Karimou in his capacity as deputy director general of elections. He was equally appointed by a presidential decree. Abdoul  Karimou is a civil administrator who was equally serving at the ministry of Territorial Administration.

He masters election procedures and have worked as observer with some international organization like La Francophonie.