2025 presidentials: Political party in advanced talks to endorse Kamto!.

There is open understanding that some solid political forces have a slim chance to be on the starting block, when Cameroonians go to the polls to vote in the highly anticipated next year's presidential election. It has resulted in extra work within certain quarters.

For one thing, the two faces that came a distant second and third behind incumbent President Paul Biya, Maurice Kamto and Cabral Libii respectively, in the 20218 presidential election, have not given up their ambitions.   

Between 2018 and now, a lot of twists and turns have played out, making the calculations for next year’s presidential election more complex and difficult to tell.

What had begun taking shape in the form of opposition alliances ahead of the election might have slowed down too but engagements to open new windows for surprise political marriages are said to be on at several levels.

The Guardian Post has it on good authority that Prof Maurice Kamto, national president of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC, party is among those working day and night to be a candidate in the election.

Kamto, we are told, is working to make real his daring declaration about 2025 being a decisive political year for Cameroon. 

Apparently aware of the slips his party suffered in easily presenting him as candidate at the 2025 presidential election, owing to his boycott of the February 9, 2020 twin polls, Kamto’s searchlight for a way out is said to be intense but secret.

It is reported that the former Minister Delegate to the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals-turned Biya regime critic, is preparing at all cost for a re-match with the incumbent Head of State or whoever will be the ruling CPDM party’s candidate.

At the moment, he is said to be in advanced talks with the hierarchy of a political party (name withheld) to be its flag bearer in the forthcoming poll. 

Kamto, highly placed sources have revealed, is seeking such endorsement plus a new platform to reinvent, rebrand and appear more appealing to voters.

Delicate consensus 

In terms of generalities pertaining to the potential landmark deal, Kamto and the said political party are said to have reached a consensus. What is said to be holding the conclusion of the engagement are said to be some fine and sensitive details.

The MRC, for one thing, we are told, is battling to avoid the embarrassments that have blurred such coalitions in recent times wherein people fail to keep to their own sides of the bargain.

Secret deal to embarrass regime 

One of the first points the MRC hierarchy and Kamto in particular are said to be battling to make is to appear when the time comes as political strategists of no mean order. 

They are said to be enjoying some level of comfort, camouflaging as being in difficulty to meet the requirements of Kamto running for election but waiting for the last minute to take the Biya regime off guard.

It is reported that one of the agreements is for the potential deal to be kept secret whenever it would be formalise, until when the presidential election temperature reaches a certain level. 

Kamto and his team are said to be suspicious that if the deal is reached and made public early enough, the regime may infiltrate and hijack the deal.

Racing to outsmart smart regime 

The engagement of a party as backup to smoothen Kamto’s path to be a candidate in next year’s presidentials has been described as the opposition figure working to outsmart the political moves of the June session of parliament.

During that session, the majority CPDM lawmakers saw reason with the explanation of government and approved a bill extending their mandates to March 30, 2026.

Biya later signed it into law in addition to a decree of July 24, 2024, extending the mandates of municipal councillors.

The mandate, which should normally be expiring in February 25, 2025, paving the way for fresh twin polls, was extended to May 31, 2026. 

These moves leaves Kamto, who pulled the MRC out of the 2020 twin polls, with a slim chance of becoming candidate for the 2025 presidentials.

The recent development of Kamto seeking a platform, analyst are saying, could make rubbish of all the regime’s calculations.

With the deal imminent, many say Biya regime’s move to organise presidentials before local elections, might end up being a waste of efforts and energy.

Why Kamto needs another political platform

Firstly, Kamto’s MRC has no municipal councillor or Member of Parliament as required by law to run for the election of next year. This is because he boycotted the twin elections of February 9, 2020.

According to Section 121 (1) of the Electoral Code, for an individual to qualify to contest for presidential election, he/she must be invested by a political party or be an independent candidate on condition of having 300 signatures from the 10 Regions. 

Thus, Kamto’s only other option is to get 300 signatures as per the Electoral Code, from elected officials and first-class traditional rulers.

But with most elected officials and first-class traditional rulers being of the CPDM party, Kamto, analysts are saying, knows such signatures will be difficult to get. 

This, they say, thus necessitates Kamto’s need for another political platform to context next year’s presidentials.

Kamto promises Biya regime hard times

Kamto’s working for another political party platform to meet the requirements for him to run for the office of the president, analysts say, points to his unrivaled determination.

On May 10 this year, Kamto had staged a press briefing at the MRC headquarters in Yaounde, during which he warned things would not be as usual in relation to the 2025 presidential election.

“To CPDM elite, we are no longer watching your antics. We have been begging that you should respect the law. We will register and go to the polls in 2025...don’t try it,” Kamto had warned.

Additionally, he had also declared that: “I am telling you in all calmness, in 2025, it will take whatever it will take and those who will be alive, will fix this country”.

Kamto insisted on massive registration on the electoral register to “to embarrass all enemies of peace by all pacific means”.

Like Kamto like supporters 

In tandem with Kamto’s unmoved posture, despite regime hand clappers, who analysts insist are meant to stop him from running for the office of President, some of his political associates are equally unmoved.

Most of them, such as erstwhile Social Democratic Front, SDF, Member of Parliament, MP, Hon Nintcheu Jean Michel, have remained vehement that Kamto will be a candidate in next year’s presidentials. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3227 of Thursday September 12, 2024