2025 Presidential Election And BAMI POWER:

 After 4 Billion FCFA Campaign Fund For 2018 Election, MRC Leader, MAURICE KAMTO, Launches  Operation To Raise 6 Billion FCFA For 2025 Election Campaign  

There is no question that unlike almost all opposition parties in Cameroon, MRC WITH ITS BAMI POWER IS A RICH POLITICAL PARTY, and that makes overzealous CPDM bitter

 A presidential election is a very costly operation for any serious political party. Serious parties thus need big campaign funds

 The SDF leader, Hon Joshua Osih, has for example announced that the party will select and train 75,000 polling agents. That requires big money.

Prof Maurice KAMTO, the National President of MRC, announced at a press conference in Yaounde on Thursday, January 30, 2025, the launching of an operation at home and abroad, for MRC to raise funds from Cameroonians for his 2025 presidential election campaign. He disclosed that the sum of 6,169,682,000 FCFA (Six billion, one hundred and sixty nine million, six hundred and eighty two thousand francs CFA), has been adopted as the budget for the 2025 presidential election campaign.

Kamto assured that the collection of the campaign funds will be done in a transparent manner. Contributions can be paid into accounts at United Bank for Africa (UBA), Afriland First Bank, and National Financial Credit (NFC Bank). Contributions can also be done by MTN Mobile Money (MoMo).

This announcement by Maurice Kamto will certainly not go down well with quite a number of people in the ruling CPDM, whose greatest wish is to see Maurice Kamto barred from participating in the 2025 presidential election. They have for several months now been trying to manipulate public opinion into believing that Kamto will not meet conditions to be a candidate at the 2025 presidential election. So the launching by the MRC leader of the operation to raise campaign funds, also serves to reassure his supporters that contrary to what detractors are saying, he will be candidate at the 2025 presidential election.

Kamto Can Be Candidate On The Ticket Of Another Party

As The Mentor has repeatedly said, Kamto cannot be MRC candidate for the 2025 presidential election, because the party boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections that held on February 9, 2020, and consequently the last senatorial election in 2023. Consequently thus, MRC is not represented either in the National Assembly, the Senate or in a municipal council, and so does not qualify to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

However, just as the Deputy Secretary of the CPDM, Gregoire Owona, Minister of Labour and Social Security, has corroborated, Prof Maurice Kamto can be candidate of one of the 18 political parties authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. There is also the rather complicated option of getting 300 signatures of some personalities, to be an independent candidate in the presidential election.

2018 Presidential Election

Meanwhile there is no doubt that many Cameroonians  are wondering whether the MRC leader, Maurice Kamto, and his party, will be able to raise  the 6, 169, 682,000 franc CFA that has been adopted as the campaign budget for the 2025 presidential election. With MRC’s BAMI POWER, that is very possible. What many Cameroonians don’t know is that the MRC led by Prof Kamto, quietly raised the colossal sum of 4 billion FCFA for their first presidential election campaign in 2018. For one thing, Prof Maurice Kamto is considered in the BAMI Community as the only credible and widely accepted party leader and presidential candidate, since the rebirth of multiparty politics in Cameroon. He is considered as the best presidential material in the BAMI land, and pulls wide support and sympathy, including secret support or sympathy from many Bamis that are militants of other political parties, including the ruling CPDM.

Meanwhile after MRC was able to raise the huge sum of 4 billion FCFA for the 2018 presidential election, Maurice Kamto did not win the election that the CPDM regime organized to win at all cost. There was big disappointment among the MRC supporters and sympathizers, especially the fund raisers. Some sources say that was the real reason why Kamto and his men came up with the story of stolen victory – that he allegedly won the presidential election and the regime stole his victory. But the fact is that despite the huge campaign funds that the MRC had, the party was in reality not fully prepared for the 2018 presidential election. A party cannot be fully prepared for a presidential election, and don’t have polling agents in quite a number of polling stations across the country. It should be noted that  while Maurice Kamto and his MRC were able to raise four billion francs CFA as campaign funds for the 2018 presidential election thanks to BAMI Power, no other opposition party or candidate was able to raise up to one billion franc CFA.as campaign funds..

Over 25,000 Polling Stations / Importance To Have Polling Agents In All The Stations

As the National Chairman of the SDF, Hon Joshua Nambangi Osih, who is the potential candidate of the party at the 2025 presidential election has repeatedly asserted, one big weakness that genuine   opposition parties and their candidates have been facing at presidential elections in Cameroon over the years, has been the failure to have polling agents in all polling agents across the country. This is especially in some rural areas. Only the ruling CPDM that has the advantage of using civil servants based in different localities,  has over  the years been able to have polling agents in all the polling stations across the country. Of course, in those polling stations where the opposition parties do not have polling agents, the CPDM does what it is good at doing – inflate the ballot boxes, rig the elections.

It is definitely good news that the SDF leader, Hon Joshua Osih, has initiated a big operation for the SDF to select within its ranks, and train, some 75,000 polling agents across the country, for the 2025 presidential election. The objective is for the SDF to be in a position to have more than enough polling agents for the over 25,000 polling stations.  That of course requires big money. Of course a presidential election is a very costly operation for any serious opposition party in the race.  But when a party is able to raise big money as campaign funds, like MRC did for the 2018 presidential election, and is also likely to do for the 2025 presidential election, he party should also know how to use it effectively.

Despite The Huge Budget, MRC Did Not Have Polling Agents In Many Polling Stations

Meanwhile going back to the issue of less preparation that Maurice Kamto’s MRC  faced at the 2018 presidential election, was that despite the huge campaign funds, the party did not have polling agents in quite a number of polling stations across the country. One of the reasons was probably that the party in reality was not yet effectively implanted across the country. So what happened was that Maurice Kamto declared himself winner of the presidential election, but his party was not in possession of enough PVs from polling stations, to prove his case.

In fact after Kamto declared himself winner of the election, that was when MRC tried to contact  some opposition parties or candidates that had polling agents in some of the areas that MRC had non, to beg for their copies of  PVs.  But the question those parties asked was on what basis then Kamto declared himself winner of  the presidential election, if  the MRC did not have enough PVs in hand to show that he won.  Even when Prof Maurice Kamto later filed a complaint at the African Union, claiming that he allegedly won the 2018 presidential election, and the CPDM regime stole the victory for Paul Biya, the African Commission asked him to bring substantive evidences to back his claim. He did not have, as he was not in possession of enough PVs to justify the claim.

It is however hoped that seven years later, Maurice Kamto and his MRC will be better prepared for the 2025 presidential election, and thus will make good use of the huge campaign budget that they are likely to raise.

Meanwhile without any surprise, CPDM militants and pro-CPDM persons have since the announcement on January 30, 2025 by the MRC leader, Maurice Kamto, of the launching of the operation by  the party to raise the huge campaign fund of 6 billion FCFA, been flooding the social media with negative comments meant to discourage Cameroonians from making any financial contribution to MRC. The critics have been dwelling more on the alleged embezzlement that occurred, when MRC launched the operation to raise funds to fight against COVID -19 also known as Coronavirus.