Perception des stratégies d’intervention en organisation communautaire et engagement électoral des personnes à mobilité réduite dans la ville de Yaoundé

Abstract

This research focused on the issue of the lack of engagement in the political scene of people with disabilities in the Cameroonian context. Despite the array of national and international texts and conventions that promote and defend their political rights, their perception of electoral engagement as voters and candidates remains limited, as evidenced by observations and factual data such as a low registration rate on electoral lists; no person with disabilities sits in the National Assembly or the Senate. Across the country, at the local level, 12 municipal councilors out of over 10,000 and one Mayor and one Deputy Mayor are people with disabilities (MINDEVEL, March 2020). This observation led to the problem of the lack of electoral engagement of people with mobility impairments (PMR) in the city of Yaoundé. The following research question served as the basis for analysis: How does the perception of community organization intervention strategies influence the electoral engagement of people with mobility impairments in the city of Yaoundé? The general objective of our work is to study and understand the significant relationship between the perception of community organization intervention strategies and the electoral engagement of people with mobility impairments. Its purpose is to provide the scientific community, civil society, and policymakers with a plethora of data related to strategies for empowering the electoral behavior of people with mobility impairments for their all-around electoral engagement. The theories of empowerment by Ninacs (1995), Rappoport (1987), Le Bossé and Vallée (1993), and the theory of commitment by Kiesler (1971) served as the theoretical foundation for this work. We opted for a mixed methodology with an explanatory sequential design. As such, we administered a questionnaire to 100 participants to predict electoral engagement based on the perception of empowerment strategies implemented by stakeholders in the electoral process. Simple linear regression and correlation matrix were used. The results show that the perception of strategies does not exert any causal influence on electoral engagement, and to understand why they are limiting, we opted for thematic analysis of data collected from 24 participants to understand why. The richness of these results will enable the development of advocacy and recommendations that can bring a new orientation to influence the political inclusion of people with mobility impairments in the electoral process in Cameroon.