2025 Presidential Election: What Is This Thing Of Unique Candidate Of The Opposition, All About?

Simply put, having a unique opposition candidate at the presidential election in a country, is a situation whereby the opposition parties in that country come together and unanimously agree to designate a single candidate for the presidential election. All the parties stand behind that candidate. In most cases, influential civil society organizations in the country are also involved, and work with the opposition parties on that specific project.

In most cases, the selection of a unique opposition candidate for presidential election, goes with the plan to set up a government of transition or transitional government, which if the opposition happens to win the election, will implement a programme that was adopted by the opposition group before the election. The implementation of the programme is also for a specific period time.

 But it should also be noted that opposition parties and civil society organizations in a country, don’t just get up one morning, hold a meeting and designate a unique candidate for the next presidential election in that country. It entails a lot of work and thus much time. For one thing, and generally speaking, the main target of each serious opposition party in a country is to one day get to power through the ballot box. So even though each political party, including the ruling party publicly claims to have the interest of the country at heart, it is not easy especially for different major opposition parties to decide to support another candidate which is their parties, at the presidential election.

The Adoption Of A Programme

Meanwhile when opposition parties and civil society organizations come together, and agree in principle to put up a single candidate at the presidential election, their first preoccupation is not supposed to be to identity the presidential candidate. Considering that each serous political party has its programme of what to do were it to come to power, the opposition political parties have to first agree to temporary shelve their different programmes.  The group of opposition parties and civil society organisations will then sit down and work on a programme of reforms and other things that the government of transition will have to implement in the different domains, if they were to win the presidential election. At the end the group will adopt a programme that their unique candidate will have to abide to, or will have to implement, if they succeed to win the presidential election.

So in a nutshell, a committee comprised of members drawn from the different political parties and civil society organizations is set up to work on the programme, which at the end will be debated upon at a plenary session, necessary modifications made, and the final programme adopted.

The group of political parties and civil society organisations, will also agree on the composition of a government if they were to win the presidential election, so that no dispute erupts between them over ministerial posts, when it comes to forming a government after the election. They will also agree on the period of time that the government of transition will last.

The Profile Of Unique Candidate

Meanwhile as regard the selection of the unique opposition candidate at the presidential election, it is normally after the group of opposition parties and civil society organizations adopt the programme, on what will be done if they were to win the next presidential election, that they start turn their attention to the profile of the personality or candidate that will attract votes, and that is also best fit to implement the adopted programme.  They start by laying out the profile of such a person, as well as define the criteria or method to use to select such a candidate. When these two things are adopted, the next stage will be the designation of the unique candidate based on the profile and method they adopted.

The group of opposition parties and civil society organizations might have agreed that the unique presidential candidate should come from the civil society. This may be so that no political party should later have any advantage over the other, as can possibly happen if the unique opposition candidate that becomes President of the Republic is from a political party.

Meanwhile as aforementioned, the group of opposition parties and civil society organizations in principle, select the unique candidate based on the profile of the needed candidate that they adopted. The group starts by putting up a short list of candidates, based on the criteria that they adopted for the profile of the needed candidate.   After that the group selects the unique candidate from the short lists, based on the method they adopted. They might have decided that if more than one candidate is proposed, they should organize a primary or use whatever criterion, to enable them select the unique candidate from the short list.

Period Of Time For

It should also be noted that one other major condition that is usually adopted in a situation of a unique candidate by the group of opposition parties and civil society organizations, is that in case the group wins the presidential election and its candidate thus become President of the Republic, he will serve as President of the country only for the period of transition.  So after the new President forms the new Government (Government of Transition), he and his Government will go ahead to carry out the reforms as outlined in the programme, which the group of opposition parties and civil society organizations adopted and presented to the population during the campaigns for the presidential election. It is the programme on which the new President of the Republic was elected to office.

 At The End Of The Transition

At the end of the Period of Transition, the coalition or alliance of opposition parties and civil society organizations will come to its end, and thus dissolved. The newly created and genuinely Independent Electoral Commission, will with the support of the Government of Transition, organize a free, fair and transparent presidential election. The President of the Transition will NOT be a candidate in the election. All political parties that meet up with the conditions laid down by Law, and that wish to send in candidates for the presidential election, will be free to send in their flag bearers  for the presidential election.  When a new President of the Republic is as expected elected in the free, fair and transparent election, the President of the Transition will then hand over power to him or her, and rerun to his home, with all the dignity or honour that goes with a job well done for the interest of the country and its people.

What Will Happen, Based On Assumption, After The 2025 Presidential Election   

So led us assume that the opposition and civil society organizations in Cameroon, come together and put up a unique candidate at the next presidential election scheduled for 2025.  If the unique opposition candidate happens to win the election, what will then happen in principle, is that the new President will first of all be sworn – in for a mandate of seven years as stipulated in the current Constitution of the country.  After that the new President will address the nation on the programme on which the Cameroonian people voted him to power, which is the government of transition.  He will then announce the three or four year period of transition as the case may be, and then form the transitional government.  At the end of the period of transition, a newly created and genuinely Independent Electoral Commission will organize a free, fair and transparent presidential election, in which the outgoing President of Transition will not be a candidate.

Alliance For A Peaceful Transition In Cameroon

Ahead of the very crucial election in the country, and for the country, that is, the  2025 presidential election, two opposition coalitions have already  been created, with some said to be in the pipeline.  The two coalitions are  the Political Alliance for Change (in Cameroon) which has an Interim Coordinator, Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu, the National President of FCC,  and the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition (in Cameroon) which is  the initiative of Prof Olivier Bile, the National President of ‘Les Liberateurs’, that it, The Liberators.

The Political Alliance for Change supports the candidature of Prof Maurice Kamto, the National President of MRC, while the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition has as objective to try to bring together all opposition parties and major civil society organisations, to have a unique or single candidate at the 2025 presidential election. But so far only eight political parties are onboard the platform of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, and only one of them, PCRN of Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, is a major opposition party.