The face-off between Paul Biya, who has been at the head of Cameroon for forty-three years, and opposition leader Maurice Kamto will ultimately not take place. The latter, who came in second in the 2018 presidential election, intended to get his revenge in the election scheduled for October 12. However, his candidacy was rejected by Elections Cameroon (Elecam), the body responsible for conducting the electoral process in the country. This decision was confirmed on August 5 by the Constitutional Council.
The rejection of Maurice Kamto’s candidacy has sent political shockwaves and drawn numerous reactions. One of the lawyers for his party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), Hippolyte Méli, denounced the decision as “arbitrary, motivated by political rather than legal considerations.” The coordinator of the NGO Un Monde Avenir, Philippe Nanga, speaks of a “denial of the right to participate in political life,” while the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (Manidem), the party that nominated Kamto, refers to an “authentic political coup d’état” against the Cameroonian people. “There is, in fact, no legal basis for the rejection of the Manidem candidate, Professor Maurice Kamto. Apart from the forgery produced by the Territorial Administration, it is clear to punish us for daring to give a chance to popular aspirations by nominating Maurice Kamto. The CPDM [the presidential party] is therefore using every means to avoid its defeat, including this deceitful artifice that elementary morality condemns,” reads a statement signed by Manidem’s president, Anicet Ekane.
On July 18, when Maurice Kamto submitted his candidacy file on behalf of the Manidem party to Elecam, the website for the Ministry of Territorial Administration (Minat) still listed Anicet Ekane as the party’s president. The following night, his name was suddenly replaced by that of Dieudonné Yebga, who would later submit his own candidacy file on behalf of the same party. Accused of orchestrating this maneuver to invalidate Maurice Kamto’s candidacy, the Minister of Territorial Administration issued a press release on July 25, in which he denounced a hacking of his ministry. Before the Constitutional Council, he held up a document asserting that Anicet Ekane was no longer the president of Manidem and that he had been replaced by Dieudonné Yebga. However, since 2018, only Anicet Ekane had been recognized by this same administration as the party’s official representative.
« I won’t betray you. »
The opponent and former presidential candidate, Djeukam Tchameni, for his part, is protesting what he considers ’crude maneuvers.’ ’The definitive rejection of Maurice Kamto’s candidacy has exacerbated my concerns about the seriousness of our democracy,’ he adds. ’The Constitutional Council seems to have simply executed orders, decisions that were made a long time ago.’
On August 7th, with a somber expression, Maurice Kamto delivered a speech following the rejection of his candidacy. He denounced the multiple betrayals that the Cameroonian people have suffered:
I have said and repeated that I will not betray you. And I have not betrayed you. On the other hand, the Constitutional Council, the justice system, Elecam, and the government in power—especially the Ministry of Territorial Administration (Minat), which has been involved in all the wrongdoings against us—have betrayed you without a second thought. The international community, notably the UN, betrayed you. This international community, which is so quick to side with the dictatorship that crushes the Cameroonian people, did not feel concerned by the political crime of the CPDM regime against our people. Quite the opposite, it has ignored the values it claims to promote and defend.
To fully understand the rejection of opposition candidate Maurice Kamto’s candidacy, you must go back to 2020, when his party decided to boycott the legislative and municipal elections in February of that year. At the time, he intended to denounce a flawed electoral process and demanded, at the same time has a consensual review of the Electoral Code. The MRC hoped to re-enter the electoral arena five years later with the expectation that the rules would have changed. This was not the case. Moreover, as if to trap Maurice Kamto, who had become the main and formidable opponent to the regime, Biya extended the term of municipal councilors and deputies by one year, thus placing the organization of the 2025 presidential election before the legislative and municipal elections, which were postponed to 2026.
This change to the electoral calendar effectively puts Maurice Kamto’s MRC out of the running for the presidential election. This is because, according to Cameroonian law, a candidate must either be nominated by a political party with representation in the assemblies or a municipal council or collect 300 endorsements from public figures across Cameroon’s ten regions. This includes traditional chiefs, who are generally members of the RDPC, the ruling party…
The surprise dual investiture of the Manidem
Convinced that he could be invested by his own party, the MRC, Maurice Kamto would gain the support of several municipal councilors from other political parties. This strategy would provoke a strong backlash from the government. Members of the government orchestrated a public campaign to state clearly that the opposition leader’s candidacy under the MRC banner would be rejected.
In the utmost secrecy, the leader of the MRC has changed his mind. His teams are in discussions with those of Manidem, a party that has a municipal councilor and is therefore able to put forward a candidate for a presidential election. An agreement is reached between Maurice Kamto and Anicet Ekane. The former can finally submit his application, to the great delight of his many supporters, who are relieved and happy to have outsmarted the government.
But things were about to get complicated. Twenty-four hours after Maurice Kamto filed his application on behalf of Manidem, a certain Dieudonné Yebga, a disgraced activist from the same party, reappeared. He also applied to Elecam under the Manidem banner. Elecam invoked a double nomination and rejected both applications. Kamto was once again out of the race. Anicet Ekane, the president of Manidem, then accused his former comrade of having been paid by the government and the RDPC to submit this second obstructionist candidacy.
« This is a kind of witchcraft session»
Facing the Constitutional Council, Maurice Kamto’s lawyers presented numerous arguments, with supporting documents, but failed to convince the judges. Anicet Ekane even learned during the hearing that he was no longer the president of his party! This is what Philippe Nanga denounces:
This is what’s sickening and shocking for us, because it’s extraordinary to see that as soon as the Manidem party presented Mr. Kamto as a candidate, Mr. Ekane Anicet, the president of that party, was denied the very status that had been recognized until now by all authorities, including the electoral council. I feel like I’ve just experienced a kind of “sorcery session,” as we say here, because I’m sure that if Manidem hadn’t presented Mr. Kamto for the next presidential election, no one would be denying Mr. Ekane’s status as president today.
Since then, Maurice Kamto has made no statement on the rejection of his candidacy. His party has been a constant presence on the Cameroonian political scene since the last presidential election in 2018, the victory of which he still claims. With a large and very loyal base of activists, the 71-year-old academic and international lawyer retains a significant capacity to cause trouble and is expected to be a kingmaker in the election. “Everything depends on the political choice Mr. Kamto makes,” analyzes political scientist Stéphane Akoa. “Either he completely withdraws from the scene, or he gives a voting instruction to his activists in favor of this or that candidate. The choice he makes will either make the campaign more or less lively.” This opinion is shared by Djeukam Tchameni, for whom “the invalidation of a candidacy does not erase the influence of the rejected candidate on his voters.”
The candidate contested internally
Twelve candidates are running for the single-round presidential election. Among them are two former ministers who recently resigned to enter the race: Issa Tchiroma, former Minister of Employment, and Bello Bouba, former Minister of Tourism. Negotiations are underway to form strong alliances capable of unseating 92-year-old Paul Biya, who has spent 43 years in power and is running for an eighth consecutive term. His candidacy does not seem to have the full approval of the government, or even his party’s entire elite. Beyond the two ministers who left to challenge him at the polls, there is simmering discontent within the CPDM, where some officials believe Paul Biya is being manipulated.
Several top officials in the regime, including the highly prominent Minister of Communication, René Sadi, and Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso, are no longer hiding their hostility towards the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. This close associate of Chantal Biya, the president’s wife, is suspected of being the “real candidate” hiding behind Biya. The latter has recently been seen, looking diminished, on only two occasions: on May 20, during Cameroon’s national day, and a little later, on television, while he was receiving the apostolic nuncio at the presidential palace.
According to the resigned minister and presidential candidate Issa Tchiroma, Paul Biya is no longer in control. “The age of candidate Biya is problematic, even for his supporters. This is what fuels the idea that he is governing less and that others are making decisions in his name,” analyzes political scientist Stéphane Akoa. With the desire for change growing stronger in Cameroonian society, Paul Biya will have to find arguments to defend the record of his last seven-year term and even his more than four decades of rule. The task does not look simply.
« Paul Biya has made opacity his style of governance»
When Paul Biya came to power in 1982, following a political transition with his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo, he inherited a country that was seen as an island of stability in an Africa plagued by numerous crises. Forty-three years later, Paul Biya’s Cameroon is fractured by an armed conflict in its two English-speaking regions (the Northwest and Southwest) that began in 2016. This forgotten war has so far resulted in over 6,000 deaths and approximately 800,000 displaced people, according to the International Crisis Group.
The economy is stalled, and youth unemployment is a scourge. Road infrastructure has not been modernized. Cameroon’s two main cities, Yaoundé and Douala, are connected by a bumpy track, even though the government launched a highway construction project that is now stalled: only 60 km have been built in ten years. Access to drinking water and electricity remains a luxury for many Cameroonians, even in major cities. Corruption reigns, and tribalism is commonplace.
Called the “lazy king,” Paul Biya is known for his regular getaways to the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, where he lives almost full-time. His style of governance is quite unique. He has a strong aversion to cabinet meetings and barely holds any. What’s more, he almost never meets with his ministers. Issa Tchiroma, the former Minister of Employment, recently said in an interview that in his twenty years in government, he had met Paul Biya twice: once in his office and another time during a trip abroad. And he is not the only one, as Djeukam Tchameni attests: “Paul Biya has made opacity his style of governance. Some of his ministers are appointed and then dismissed without ever having met him one-on-one.”
Many Cameroonians are eagerly awaiting the start of the election campaign. They will be able to judge for themselves Paul Biya’s true ability to continue holding the reins of power.
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