Elections management body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), has disqualified key opposition figure, Maurice Kamto and 69 others from taking part in the October 12 presidential election in Cameroon. After a rigorous scrutiny of candidacy papers from 83 aspirants, the Electoral Board of ELECAM said only incumbent President Paul Biya and 12 others qualify for the race.
The shortlist of 13 was published during a press conference on Saturday, July 26 in Yaounde amid tight security.
Biya who is seeking an eighth term in office is largely seen as favourite in the election.
Other prominent figures on the list include seasoned lawyer and anti-corruption advocate Akere Muna and Honorables Cabral Libii and Joshua Osih, who came in the third and fourth positions respectively in the previous vote in 2018.
ELECAM also cleared Serge Espoir Matomba, another 2018 presidential election contender as well as Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma Bakary, two former Biya allies who have recently broken links with him to run for the October poll.
Two youth who are younger than Biya’s reign are also part of the shortlist including 38-year-old Iyodi Hiram Samuel and 39-year-old Ateki Seta Caxton. The lone woman among the 13 is Tomaino Hermine Patricia Ndam Njoya, a former parliamentarian and mayor of the Foumban municipality in the West Region of the country.
Kwemo Pierre, Bouhga Hagbe Jacques and Dzipang Hilaire Marcaire complete the provisional shortlist of 13.
Kamto from MRC to MANIDEM
Kamto who came second in the disputed 2018 presidential election and was largely seen as Biya’s major challenger in the October 12 poll changed political affiliation and was seeking to run for the vote under the socialist African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM). He had resigned from his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party last month as the opposition party he founded in 2012 was not eligible to put forward a candidate for the election due to lack of local elected officials following its boycott of the legislative and municipal elections in 2020.
Announcing the provisional list at press conference in Yaounde, the President of the Electoral Board of ELECAM, Dr Enow Abrams Egbe said the body applied the law with rigour in the scrutiny of the application files and dossiers that were rejected are those that did not meet statutory requirements.
Multiple candidatures
In a notification addressed to Kamto, ELECAM said MANIDEM nominated multiple candidatures for the election which is against the law. Besides Kamto, Dieudonné Yebga a former president of the fractured political party had also submitted his candidacy files under same affiliation.
MANIDEM is however just one of five political parties that presented multiple candidates for the election. At least four other political parties including Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) and Akere Muna’s UNIVERS had more than a candidate on the list of 83, but Biya and Akere were cleared.
The 13-candidate shortlist is still just provisional as the rejected candidates have two days to appeal at the Constitutional Council, the highest judicial body on electoral matters in the country, though the council has never overturned a decision by ELECAM in its over half a decade of existence.
Kamto is one of those who alleged the 2018 presidential election was marred by several irregularities but the Council then rejected his petition to annul the vote.
Risks of unrest
In a security brief on the eve of the publication of the list, the United Nations Department of Security and Safety warned that the eventual rejection of certain candidates may lead to protests in some areas of the country.
“In case of the rejection of certain candidates in this election, it is possible there will be protests in the centre of Yaounde and near the seat of ELECAM,” it said in a statement on Friday.
The government on its part warned same day that it was not going to tolerate, under any pretext, “the slightest attack on the integrity, transparency, and serenity of the ongoing electoral process”.
The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji said in a statement that: “It is formally established that any person, whether residing on national territory or abroad, who attempts to disrupt, hinder, or manipulate in any way the regular conduct of the electoral process—from the publication of the final lists of candidates to the formal proclamation of the results—is liable to severe legal prosecution, in accordance with the laws in force. No excuse, no political affiliation, no status can justify such a crime”.
The capital city Yaounde was militarized prior to the publication of the publication of the results on Saturday with riot police officers patrolling the streets and others stationed at major road junctions with water cannons.
First published in NewsWatch newspaper No 214 of Monday, July 28, 2025
