Elections Cameroon (Elecam), the country’s election body, is moving to change the locations of certain polling places after a formal request from a presidential candidate.

In an official message obtained by SBBC, Elecam Director-General Erik Essousse asked his ten regional delegates to “urgently submit proposals for changing the locations of polling stations, particularly those situated in police stations, traditional meeting huts, chiefdoms, and military barracks.”

The directive follows a complaint from Joshua Osih, the presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Front (SDF), who argued that 1,153 polling stations did not meet legal requirements for neutrality, accessibility, and security.

Osih stated that holding elections in military barracks or headquarters was “legally and materially unacceptable” because these are not neutral or civilian public spaces. He added that the presence of armed personnel and weapons at these sites violates a legal ban on weapons in polling stations.

In response, Elecam’s director-general set an August 16 deadline for regional delegates to propose new locations for the contested polling stations.

Source: Sbbc