Paul Biya wants to extend mandates of MPs, Mayors, Councillors
By Nfor Hanson Nchanji
The decision to extend the mandates of the present Members of Parliament, Councillors, and Mayors did not come as a surprise.
In 2018, President Paul Biya had to deal with the rising popularity of Professor Maurice Kamto, the president of the opposition party, Cameroon Rennaisance Movement. After the polls, Kamto supporters staged protests across Cameroon in what they described as “electoral holdup” protests.
Thousands were arrested, including the leader, Kamto who spent months in jail.
In 2025, Cameroon will be holding a presidential election, and though he has not made a sign of being a candidate, President Paul Biya, is silently putting things in place to avoid the chaos of the post-2018 polls.
- Eliminate potential candidates by making things difficult for them to represent their parties
- Postpone their potential grassroots power until after the presidential elections
- Arm himself with present grassroots support for victory
The president does not need to do this himself. Those parading the corridors of power such as Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, had started with the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, led by Hon. Cabral Libii Li Ngue. Mr. Atanga benefitted from an internal party misunderstanding to declare that Cabral Libii had no stakes in the functioning of the party. Despite a pending court decision, the Minister has noted on several occasions that the party belongs to the founder Robert Kouna.
This may not be an issue for now, but certainly, in 2025, it may be difficult for Cabral Libii who came third in the 2018 polls, to represent the same party.
How the 2018 polls looked like
1- Biya: 71,28
2- Kamto: 14,23%
3- Libii l: 6,28%
4- Osih: 3,35%
5- Ndam Njoya: 1,73%
6- Garga: 1,55%
7- Ndifor: 0,67%
8- Matomba: 0,56%
9- Muna: 0,35%
Another political opponent that gives Etoudi a nightmare is Maurice Kamto who was second in the 2018 polls. Professor Kamto made a blunder in 2020 when he refused and sidelined his party from taking part in the Parliamentary and Municipal elections, which would have seen his party grab a few seats in Parliament, Senate, and Councils. His refusal also brought in internal disagreements, resignations, and expulsion of some members.
How the regime is using it to their advantage
The Biya regime wants to avoid a chaotic scene or a situation where the ruling party’s natural candidate, President Paul Biya, may find himself tailing the polls as he gets more unpopular within the Cameroonian society, especially as the opposition has been talking about uniting forces to support a single candidate.
The bill to extend the mandate of the MPs, Councillors, and Mayors, is used to allow the majority Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM, to pave the way for Paul Biya by leveraging their grassroots popularity.
WHile Hon. Libii is technically kicked out of the PCRN party, Maurice Kamto has no Councillor, Mayor, Parliamentarian or Regional Councillor and will have to go through thick and thin for his party to present his candidature. This is what it may look like.
According to CAmeroon’s electoral code’s article 121(1), someone can be a presidential candidate by being nominated by a political party or by being an independent candidate.
Article 121(1) further explains that one can be an independent candidate, “provided that they have been nominated as a candidate for the election of the President of the Republic by at least
three hundred (300) personalities from all the Regions, thirty (30) from each Region
and who are either members of Parliament or of a Consular Chamber, or a Regional
Regional Councillor or Municipal Councillor, or a first-degree Traditional Chief.”
Kamto may have a chance as a candidate nominated by a party that is not represented in any of the above structures but the conditions will also depend on the administration as stipulated in Article 121(2)
“A candidate nominated by a political party not represented in the National Assembly, the Senate, a Regional Council or a Municipal Council must also fulfil the conditions paragraph (1) above applicable to independent candidates. independent candidates. The said personalities must affix their signatures authenticated by the territorially competent administrative authorities on the letters of presentation. The same person may sign only once and for only one candidate,”
The question now is that should the CRM nominate Kamto as their candidate and he gets all the signatures as required by the law, will the competent administrators accept to authenticate letters of presentation?
Cameroon is going through tough times with a high cost of living, epileptic power supply and a dangling economy. But President Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, is not ready to give up. At 91, many think that it is time for him to allow a younger person to take command. Even if the CPDM barrons may agree that power needs to change hands, it is certainly not an opposition leader, not even Kamto.
