The suspense is over. President Paul Biya will not be going to the village at the end of his current mandate. The 92-year-old has declared his candidacy for the October 12 presidential election, saying his determination to serve Cameroonians is commensurate with the serious challenges facing the country.
“I am a candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election,” Biya wrote in a message on his official X (formerly twitter) account Sunday evening, dissipating doubts on whether he will seek reelection or the October presidential vote will be the first without him.
In power since 1982, Biya said “ensuring the security and wellbeing” of Cameroonians is “the sacred duty” to which he has devoted his time and energy since becoming Head of State 43 years ago saying “the best is still to come”.
“The results are palpable, visible and laudable”, incumbent Biya said admitting however that much remains to be done. “In the face of an increasingly difficult international environment, the challenges facing us are more and more pressing”, he wrote saying in such a situation, he cannot shirk his mission.
Like in the previous election, Biya said the decision to seek an eighth term in office is a favourable response to numerous and insistent calls from Cameroonians in the country and the diaspora to do so.
“Rest assured that my determination to serve you is commensurate with the numerous challenges facing us”, Biya told Cameroonians stating that the wellbeing of youth and women will be at the heart of his priorities in the new mandate.
The October 12, 2025 vote will determine who will rule Cameroon for the next seven years. Polling stations shall be opened at 8:00am and close at 6:00pm, according to a presidential decree signed earlier on Friday, July 11.
With the date set, aspirants have until Monday, July 21 to submit their candidacy requirements to elections management body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), according to the electoral code that allows for a ten-day period for the submission for the electoral college is convened.
CPDM committed to ensure Biya victory
The announcement by Biya who is National President of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) has not come as a surprise many Cameroonians as the ruling party had maintained that the nonagenarian is it candidate for the poll.
CPDM party Spokesperson, also Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo, said last week that the candidature of president Biya who “is very competent” and “liked by a majority of Cameroonians” is not debatable.
As the National President of the CPDM, Prof Fame Ndongo said “there is no doubt that he [Biya] will run in October. We are committed to do whatever we can do to ensure his reelection”, Prof Fame Ndongo said after leading a delegation of political elite from Biya’s native South Region to consultative talks to build CPDM campaign strategy for the election.
The delegation from the South was the last in a series of delegations from the country’s ten regions consulted during weeklong strategic meetings to gauge the political climate and strategise for campaign for the CPDM candidate at the October 12 election. The Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, chaired the meetings that wrapped up at the Unity Palace two days before the convening of the electorate.
Across the country, Biya’s supporters have been using ego-massaging messages calling on him to be their candidate at the election, reminiscence of the 2011 and 2018 scenarios where president Biya said by seeking reelection, he was giving a positive answer to overwhelming calls from the people to do so.
Biya to face former allies
Since independence from France in 1960, Cameroon has been ruled by only two presidents; Ahmadou Ahidjo who hailed from the predominantly muslim north and Paul Biya from the predominantly Christian south. The latter has remained a serial election winner since the country’s first multi-candidate presidential election in 1992, albeit repeated reports of rigging.
This year however, Biya will face a major challenge from his former allies who recently resigned from government and announced their candidacies for the October 12 poll. Earlier this month, Tourism and Leisure minister Bello Bouba Maigari a decades-old ally announced he was stepping down from his Cabinet position after Issa Tchiroma Bakary, another northern heavyweight ally of the leader resigned last month – both to contest in the October election.
Biya is a permanently holidaying leader who often vanishes from public view especially after official trips abroad. Rumours of his death abroad last year prompted the government to ban discussions relating to his health in the media.
First published in NewsWatch newspaper No 213 of Monday, July 14, 2025.
