Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
How The EKANE ANICET And DIEUDONNE YEBGA’S Camps In The MANIDEM Leadership Conflict, Reacted To The July 26, 2025 Decision Taken By The Electoral Board Of ELECAM.
The Two Opposing Camps Have Filed Appeals At The Constitutional Council, And Have Invited ATANGA NJI’S MINAT Into The Matter. What Will Be The Position Of MINAT In The Affair?
The Constitutional Council That Received Both Appeals And Petitions In Relation To The Rejection, As Well As Validation, Of Some Candidacies For The October 12, 2025 Presidential Election, By The Electoral Board Of ELECAM, Started Examining Them On Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Following the decision on Saturday, July 26, 2025 by the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, to reject the candidacy of a frontline opposition leader, Prof Maurice Kamto, for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, the country has seen waves of emotional and bitter reactions, as well as an increase in campaigns of disinformation by different camps, aimed at influencing public opinion.
It should be noted that the ‘former’ President of the MRC Party, Maurice Kanto, filed his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, as the candidate of the MANIDEM Party, since his party was not authorized by the Electoral Law to give investiture to a candidate for the election, as it is neither represented in parliament nor in a municipal council. The investiture letter from MANIDEM that was given to Maurice Kamto, was signed by Ekane Anicet, who claims to be the President of the party. But as The Mentor reported last week, the file of another candidacy from MANIDEM for the 2025 presidential election was also received by ELECAM. It was the file of Dieudonne Yebga, who also claims to be the President of MANIDEM.
Reason Advanced By ELECAM For The Rejection Of Kamto’s Candidacy
Shortly after the Electoral Board of ELECAM which has as Chairman, Dr Enow Abraham Egbe (retired Governor), on Saturday, July 26, 2025 made public a list of 13 candidates that the Board validated for the October 12, 2025 presidential elections, a team of four MRC lawyers who are legal counsels of Maurice Kamto for the 2025 presidential election, swiftly addressed a correspondence to the Director General of ELECAM, Erik Essouse , to find out the reason for the rejection of Kamto’s candidacy. The lawyers led by Barrister Hippolyte B- T Meli, included Barrister Sother Menkem, Barrister Martin Tene Nzohoua, and Barrister Evariste Djemgoue.
Later on that same Saturday, July 26, the Director General of ELECAM, Erik Essouse, addressed a correspondence to Prof Maurice Kamto, in which he disclosed that Kamto’s candidacy was rejected because of “pluralite d’investiture par le MANIDEM”, that is, Kamto’s candidacy was rejected because of plurality or multiplicity of investiture given by MANIDEM. So it is clear that the problem did not come from Maurice Kamto as an individual or as a presidential aspirant, but rather from the party, MANIDEM, from which his team negotiated for him to get investiture.
Reactions By Ekane Anicet’s Camps
Meanwhile following the rejection on Saturday, July 26, 2025 of the candidacy of Maurice Kamto for the October 12, 2025 presidential election by ELECAM, Ekane Anicet’s camp in MANIDEM, first attempted on that July 26 to grant a press briefing in Douala. But the event was blocked by the DO of Douala 1 that mobilized security forces. The DO said Ekane did not obtain an authorization to organize the event.
Suffice to say the Ekane camp finally registered and put on the social media a video message. Written copies of the declaration, was also made available. It was jointly signed by Ekane Anicet as National President of MANIDEM, and Valentin Dongmo, the Vice President in charge of Elections. In the declaration, it was said that the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon had “arbitrarily rejected the candidacy of Maurice Kamto presented by MANIDEM for the October 12, 2025 presidential election”. The Ekane camp described the rejection of Kamto’s candidacy as a gross provocation by an ELECAM – government alliance, against the Cameroonian people fighting for change. They said that Kamto is the one that carries the hope of the Cameroonian people for change.
EKane Anicet’s Camp Avoided Mentioning Yebga, In The Reaction
The Ekane Camp claimed that before ELECAM rejected the file of Kamto’s candidacy, a campaign of disinformation was launched on conditions to be a candidate at the presidential election, up to the point where questionable modifications were made on the website of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, on information about the leadership of MANIDEM. The Ekane camp said all were evidences to the fact the CPDM regime and Paul Biya, fear Kamto will beat them at the polls, and want to avoid a face to face with the MANIDEM candidate at the presidential election.
The Ekane camp however called on the Cameroonian people to stay calm, assuring that the foul play that has been committed by ELECAM, will be sanctioned by the Constitutional Council. “To all the people who have a desire for change, we are launching a call for unprecedented mobilization to denounce the plot underway. The password is, NO MAKE ERREUR! The next step will depend on the response of the Constitutional Council”, the release stated. It should be noted that the Ekane Camp in the declaration did not mention Dieudonne Yebga.
Questionable Audios
Meanwhile the Ekane camp, as well as MRC militants or Kamto’s supporters have been peddling a rumour that Yebga has received a huge sum of money from Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister of State, Secretary General, at the Presidency, to sabotage the candidacy of Maurice Kamto. They also claim to have audios, some of which are in circulation on the social media, containing incriminating declarations allegedly made by Dieudonne Yebga and Denis Kwebo by telephone, purportedly telling some members of the Ekane camp that Dieudonne Yebga is being sponsored by the Biya regime through Ngoh Ngoh, to sabotage the candidacy of Kamto. But so far, not one of the audios has been authenticated. Ekane has promised to present some of the audios at the Constitution Council. But the problem, that the Ekane camp will face, will be to authenticate the audio messages. In these days of Artificial Intelligence, AI, it is easy to fake a voice.
Rumour has also been circulating on the social media that Dieudonne Yebga is being lodged by the regime at Mont Febe Hotel In Yaounde, and that he is being chauffeur – driven. But so far, there has been no evidence to show. Just rumours and fake news all the way.
Reaction By Dieudonne Yebga’s Camp
Meanwhile, the camp of Mbombog Dieudonne Yebga also reacted to the rejection of his candidacy by the Electoral Board of ELECAM, in a communiqué that was done using the letter-headed paper of MANIDEM, and signed by Dieudonne Yebga, as National President of MANIDEM. “We have taken note of the rejection of the candidacy of MANIDEM by the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon. The decision is however not definitive, as the Electoral Law offers the possibility of taking the matter to the Constitutional Council”, the Yebga camp said in the communiqué. The Yebga camp said the rejection by ELECAM of the candidacy of MANIDEM’s flag bearer for the 2025 presidential election, was caused by a candidacy that was put up by “a group of individuals”, and that the individuals were pushed by selfish financial interests. So the Yebga camp refers to the camp of Ekane Anicet as a group of individuals.
Touching a bit on the leadership conflict in MANIDEM, the Yebga camp said it is ironical, that the group of individuals, that don’t want to accept change in MANIDEM as wished by the grass root militants, claim they want to see change at the helm of the country. “We are going to contest the decision by the Electoral Board of ELECAM related to the rejection of our candidacy for the presidential election , and we hope that we will find justice at the Constitutional Council”, the Yebga’s camp concluded.
It should be noted that the Yebga Camp too is also peddling rumours. The camp for example, reportedly claims that Ekane Anicet received a bribe of 500 million francs CFA from Maurice Kamto, to sign the letter of investiture, that Kamto be the presidential candidate of MANIDEM. But Yebga camp has so far not provided any evidence, to back this allegation. It all thus remains rumours and fake news.
As expected, there have lots of bitter reactions by supporters and sympathizers of Maurice Kamto, following the rejection of his candidacy by the Electoral Board of ELECAM. But fortunately, the fire and brimstones or violence that was predicted by some persons on the social media if ELECAM rejected Kamto’s candidacy, have not occurred, at least so far.
Ekane’s Camp, Yebga’s Camp And Kamto’s Lawyers, File Appeals
It should be noted that the rejection of Maurice Kamto’s candidacy by ELECAM, does not at this stage means that it is all over for Kamto at the 2025 presidential election. There is the last stage, which is the Constitutional Council that has the power to examine appeals against the decision taken ELECAM, and take a decision on the matter. The Constitutional Council has the power to instruct ELECAM to add some names on the list of candidates of the 2025 presidential candidates.
The Ekane Anicet’s camp in MANIDEM, the Dieudonne Yebga’s camp in MANIDEM, and Maurice Kamto’s lawyers, all filed appeals at the Constitutional Council, against the July 26, 2025 decision that was taken by the Electoral Board of ELECAM. Interestingly enough, both the Ekane and Yebga camps have brought in the Ministry of Territorial Administration commonly known by the French acronym, MINAT, into the affair at the Constitutional Council.
Ekane Anicet depends much on MINAT, for evidences that he is the rightful leader of MANIDEM. The main evidence is the July 17, 2018 correspondence that the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, addressed to the 10 Governors of the country, on the situation in three political parties, including MANIDEM. As regard MANIDEM, the minister said in the correspondence that the President of the party was Ekane Anicet. The second evidence that EKane has, is that until recently, it was his name that was on the website of MINAT as President of MANIDEM. There is also the fact that it was Ekane Anicet that signed the letter of investiture for MANIDEM candidates at the 2020 municipal elections.
But it should be noted that in 2018, Minister Atanga Nji and Ekane Anicet developed a close relationship or struck a deal, that does not exist today. It would thus be interesting to hear what the lawyers of MINAT will say at the Constitutional Council on the question of who is President of MANIDEM.
Constitutional Council Starts Examining Over 30 Petitions
As aforementioned, the list of 13 candidates that was validated by ELECAM on Saturday, July 26, is not definitive. The final list of candidates will only be known after the Constitutional Council will examine all the appeals and petitions filed, and rule on them. It should be noted that ELECAM received a total of 83 files of candidacies for the October 12 presidential election, and validated a total of 13 candidacies, meaning that a total of 70 candidacies were rejected. Some of the 70 persons have filed appeals to the Constitutional Council against the decision of ELECAM to reject their candidacies.
As regard petitions, some persons who were not involved in the matter of candidacies at the level of ELECAM, have filed petitions to the Constitutional Council, against the decision that was taken by ELECAM on July 26 to validate certain candidacies. Pa Robert Kona for example, have filed a petition against the decision that the Electoral Board of ELECAM took on July 26, to validate the candidacy of Hon Cabral Libii Ngue as presidential candidate of PCRN. This also shows that in principle, it is also possible that some of the 13 candidacies that ELECAM validated on July 26, might be rejected by the Constitutional Council.
The Constitutional Council on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 started examining some 35 appeals and petitions it received in relation to the July 26 rejection of several candidacies for the 2025 presidential election, as well as against the validation of some candidacies. The Constitutional Council has a maximum of 10 days which started on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, to examine the appeals and petitions, listen to the different parties, and take decisions. The decision taken by the Constitutional Council is final, as there is no other option for an appeal after the Council’s decision.
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