2025 Presidential Election: A Large Majority Of The 82 Candidates That Deposited The Files Of Their Candidacies At ELECAM, Had Incomplete Files

How An Important Stage Of The Presidential Election, Was Transformed Into A Comedy Show. Was The Comedy Show Also A Form Of Protest?

 There Is Increasing Call On The State To Make Conditions For A File To Be Accepted by ELECAM, A Bit More Tough, To Keep Away Jokers.  It Can For Example Be Stated That For ELECAM To Accept A File, THE CANDIDATE MUST HAVE PAID THE 30 Million FCFA DEPOSIT.

The concern expressed by the expert on good governance, Prof Viviane Ondoua Biwoule, on the scandals, ugly scenes and irregularities that marred the stage to deposit the files of candidates for the 2025 presidential election at offices of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, is shared by many Cameroonians of goodwill. Many people were in fact embarrassed to see an important stage in the presidential elections, that is, election to the highest office in the land, transformed into more of a comedy show by some Cameroonians.

Come to think of it, that at the 2018 presidential election, an individual who was on detention at the Yaounde Central Prison commonly known as Kondengui Prison, was the first to send the file of his purported candidacy to be deposited at the ELECAM Headquarters in Yaounde. That was less than 24 hours after the President of the Republic convened Cameroonian electorates to the polls for the October 7, 2018 presidential election. But all that was in the file was the photo copy of the individual’s ID card. The same individual repeated the same thing for this year’s presidential election. President Biya on July 11, 2025 convened electorates to the polls for the 2025 presidential election billed for October 12. The very day, that is July 12, the file of the same individual was deposited at the ELECAM headquarters in Yaounde, and registered as No. 1.

More Comedians On Stage

What about Mfoula Mfoula Cedric Gael. He deposited his file at ELECAM in Yaounde, claiming that he was a resident of Mvan Quarter, in Yaounde. The next day, he wrote to the General Manager of ELECAM demanding to withdraw his file. He said he hails from Mayomessala Sub –division like President Paul Biya, and that he is actually based in France, and has been a “fervent defender” of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya.  He said he was misled or pushed by his friends to deposit his file for the presidential election, whereas he has been a supporter of President Biya.

What about this civil servant, who after depositing his file at ELECAM, told journalists that he was suspended from work and his salary suspended, and that he was later called back to work, but his salary remain suspended. He said the money he is being owed by the State is over 30 million FCFA, and that he had not even added the profit that the State is supposed to pay on the money. He said he had asked ELECAM to collect the 30 million FCFA for his deposit from the Government, precisely from what he is being owed.

There is this Anglophone, who after depositing his file, felt so excited that he was well received by ELECAM staff, and said he has 10,000 votes which he will give to President Biya. He did not say why he then came to deposit the file of his supposed candidacy, if he is a Biya supporter, and where the 10,000 votes he will give to Biya will come from. Joker indeed!

No Problem With A Welder Becoming President, But He Should At least Be Neat

Some of the persons that went to the different ELECAM offices to deposit their files looked quite unkempt. The case of a welder who just left his workshop the way he goes to work, and moved to the ELECAM office in Douala, to deposit his file, and also looking very nervous. The ‘presidential candidate’ had on a tee shirt, two shirts, and a jacket, all looking old and dirty, being definitely what he uses at work.  The issue here is not about the job, but rather that a presidential candidate should at least look neat. There were cases of ‘presidential candidates’ who could not take a taxi to the ELECAM offices to deposit their files. They had to trek, and arrived there sweating, even though the weather now is generally cold.

Can A Lady Who Roast Fish, Not Become President Of The Republic?

‘Parti Univers’ which has a President, Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper of the Ngaoundere University, is one of those political parties that have more than one presidential candidate. There is Barrister Muna Akere Tabeng, that, was given investiture by the President of the party, Prof Nkou Mvondo. The file of Muna’s candidacy was deposited at the headquarters of ELECAM in Yaounde, by a delegation headed by Nkou Mvondo. But then a popular lady in Ngaoundere, Membouet Chantale Adelaide, who is as well known to be a frontline member of ‘Parti Univers’, also deposited the file of her candidature  at the Adamawa Regional Office of ELECAM in Ngaoundere. That has put ‘Parti Univers’ now in two camps. Talking over Info Tv in Yaounde, a member of the Nkou Mvondo camp, tried to denigrate the other candidate, Membouet Chantale Adelaide, as woman who sells roasted fish in Ngaoundere, who wants to run for President. Fortunately the moderator of the programme, Jean Jacques ZE, would not allow the guy go away with such arrogance and insult against a fellow militant, simply because she too deposited the file of her candidacy. The follower of Nkou Mvondo finally had to tactically withdraw his statement, and now talked of how the lady in Ngaoundere is popular, and how somebody who roasts fish as a profession, is somebody who feeds the society. In a Cameroon ruined by the bad governance of the Biya regime, things have become so difficult that many people do not do the job they would have loved to do. But it is matter of trying to do something to be able to put food on the table. What is wrong by the way in making a living from roasting fish? Besides that, fish rating is a profession where serious ladies make good money. Come to think of it, that the current President of Venezuela was for a long time a bus conductor in his country. Today, he is the President of the country.

“Presidential Candidate’ On The Run  

What about this other this other ‘presidential candidate’ in Yaounde, who gave an Afriland First Bank check of 30 million FCFA to the Public Treasury in Yaounde, for the purported payment of his deposit. The check ‘bounced’, or better still the check could not be paid by the bank because there was no money in the man’s account. The Public Treasury that was unable to get to the man, filed a complaint with the Gendarmerie. The man who wants to be President of Cameroon has gone underground, or is on the run, as he is being hunted by gendarmes, for “cheque sans provision”.  Cameroonians! Why put yourself in such a situation?

A Large Majority Of Files Were Incomplete

Sources at ELECAM say that is a large majority of the 82 files of candidacies that were deposited at ELECAM offices, were incomplete.  A large majority of the 82 persons that deposited their files had not paid their 30 million franc CFA deposit. Thus they all knew that their files would be rejected at the end, yet they went and deposited the files.

The expert on good governance and an entrepreneur, Prof Viviane Ondoua Biwoule, bitterly complained in a video that was posted on social media that Cameroonians in general no longer tend to take anything serious. Good governance is a serious problem in Cameroon, and the people in general as well as the institutions, have no respect for norms.

Was The Comedy Show Also A Form Of Protest?

Meanwhile there are some Cameroonians who also see the comedy show that was staged by several of the 82 persons that deposited the files of their candidacies for the 2025 presidential elections, as a form of protest against the Biya regime that has eternalized its stay in power. Jean Robert Wafo, the National Communication Chief of Jean Michel Nintcheu’s FCC Party, for example thinks that what happened was a form of protest to tell the Biya regime that has been in power for over 42 years, and does not want to leave, that the post of President of the Republic is neither the private property of any person, nor is meant for some particular people. That the Presidency belongs to all Cameroonian, and that any Cameroonian, no matter the educational or professional background, can also become the President of the Republic. Jean Robert Wafo thinks some Cameroonians were out to send a message, and demystify what the Biya regime has made the Presidency to look like something else, that only then can handle.

Need To Make Conditions A Bit More Tough

Meanwhile following the comedy show that was observed at the stage for the depositing of files of candidacies at ELECAM offices for the 2025 presidential elections, which took place from July 11 – 21, there are increasing calls by Cameroonians for the State or Government to make the stage more difficult, in order to keep away jokers, and leave the room only for serous candidates.

Nobody is asking for new additional conditions for a   Cameroonian to be a presidential candidate. Rather, many think  that if there is a small modification in the Electoral Code, to state for example that for any person to deposit the file of  his candidacy for the presidential election, he must have paid the 30 million francs CFA deposit, that automatically keeps away all jokers or ‘comedians’.  There is no body that will raise 30 million francs CFA and pay for a deposit to be a presidential candidate, to joke around. It is said that some of the persons who went and deposited the so called files of their candidacies at ELECAM , were out to use the occasion as a strategy to get visibility. They were interviewed by journalists after depositing their ‘empty files’, and that put them in the spotlight.