Beyond the Ballot: Data, Digital Rights, and the New Frontlines of Electoral Integrity in Cameroon
By Giyo Ndzi
On October 12, 2025, Cameroonians will head to the polls in what could be one of the most decisive elections in the country’s history. Elections remain the universally accepted means of choosing leaders or renewing confidence in existing ones. From kingdoms and handpicking to ballots and biometric registration, leadership selection has evolved. Today, the standard is that citizens decide who governs them and for how long.
To give credibility to this system, countries establish Election Management Bodies (EMBs) tasked with organising and supervising elections. In Cameroon, that responsibility falls on ELECAM. Smooth as this may sound, experience across Africa shows that election management is rarely straightforward. As seen in Nigeria, Kenya, and Senegal, EMBs often carry the heaviest burden of trust, sometimes succeeding, faltering.
Trust Begins Before Election Day
Winning the trust of voters is not achieved on voting day. It begins long before ballots are printed. This message was at the heart of the Expert Validation Meeting on Peer-to-Peer Learning and Data-Driven Approaches for Electoral Integrity in Africa, held in Addis Ababa in July 2025.
Convened by the African Union and International IDEA, the meeting brought together electoral experts, civil society, and policymakers to refine tools that strengthen electoral integrity.
The discussions highlighted transparency, learning, and institutional development as essential to building confidence in EMBs.
But every country’s context is unique. No two EMBs face the same digital, political, or legal challenges. For Cameroon, this means acknowledging local realities, persistent mistrust in ELECAM’s neutrality, frequent accusations of manipulation, and the dominance of an older political elite deciding the fate of a much younger electorate.
Elections in the Digital Age
Today, elections are no longer just about ballot boxes; they are also about what happens online. From misinformation campaigns to internet shutdowns, the digital space has become a battleground.
In the last decade, Cameroonians have experienced internet blackouts during moments of political tension, making digital rights a frontline issue for electoral integrity.
Freedom of expression, access to information, digital voter education, and protection against surveillance are no longer abstract concepts. They are daily concerns in a country where more than half the population, especially young people, access political information via smartphones and social media.
Across Africa, countries like South Africa and Kenya have embraced evidence-based electoral communication, producing crisis communication plans and annual reports to build credibility.
Platforms such as Real411, Ripoti by Paradigm Initiative, and PADRE help counter online disinformation. Cameroon cannot afford to ignore these tools.
Why Digital Rights Matter for Cameroon
In this election, the stakes are higher than ever. For millions of young voters, many of whom are casting ballots for the first time, digital rights are directly tied to their political participation.
Internet shutdowns like those Cameroon has witnessed before, or censorship, would not only undermine transparency but also further alienate a generation already disillusioned with governance.
Civil society groups such as Paradigm Initiative (PIN) stress that digital rights and inclusion must be at the center of electoral planning. Through initiatives like the Digital Rights and Elections in Africa Monitor (DREAM) and Ripoti, PIN has been able to track digital rights violations and build safeguards against abuse. Cameroon’s EMB can draw valuable lessons here.
The Way Forward: Digitising Democracy in Cameroon
As Cameroonians prepare to vote, this election is an opportunity to move from procedural credibility to people-centered legitimacy. For ELECAM, and by extension, government and other stakeholders, that means:
• Safeguarding digital rights: Guaranteeing that internet access will not be restricted before, during, or after voting.
• Documenting digital threats and wins: Tracking disinformation campaigns, online voter suppression, and platform misuse.
• Inclusive digital participation: Developing local-language voter education campaigns on WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and radio for the digitally connected and those offline.
• Ethical use of technology: Ensuring biometric voter registration, AI systems, and data storage respect privacy, security, and accountability standards.
• Measurable benchmarks: What gets measured gets managed. ELECAM must set clear monitoring indicators for transparency, communication, and digital safeguards.
In the age of artificial intelligence, disinformation, and deepfakes, electoral integrity is no longer just about how votes are counted but about how citizens are seen, heard, and protected, both offline and online.
As Cameroonians step into the voting booths on October 12, 2025, the test will not only be whether ballots are cast and counted fairly but also whether the digital rights of citizens are respected. For a nation where most voters are under 30, credibility depends as much on what happens online as in the polling station.
The ballot is just the beginning. The real question is whether Cameroon is ready to digitize its democracy and secure electoral integrity in both physical and digital spaces. Giyo Ndzi is communications officer for Paradigm Initiative, a non-profit which advocates for Digital Rights and Inclusion in the Global South
