Electoral Participation in Cameroon: Variations in Voter Turnout

Abstract

Since the reintroduction of pluralism in Cameroon in the 1990s, electoral participation, the ‘lifeblood of democracy', has been the subject of particular attention. This attention has made it possible to put in place a set of socio-political and institutional mechanisms to stimulate voter turnout. Thirty years later, voter turnout is being influenced by a range of factors. Among these factors are the salience of elections (municipal, legislative and presidential), socio-political, and security challenges. The combination of these factors may have contributed to place Cameroon in the category of low turnout countries, but there might be other reasons like the lower motivation. The aim of this paper is to understand variations in voter turnout observed within the electoral periods 1992-2020 in Cameroon and identify the factors that influence them.