2025 Presidential Election: Will MRC Leader, Prof MAURICE KAMTO, Be The Presidential Candidate Of UMS Party Of Hon PIERRE KWEMO?

Despite the insistence by MRC officials that MAURICE KAMTO will run as the party’s candidate at the 2025 presidential election, KAMTO and his men have reportedly since arranged for a Plan B

 But then there are genuine reasons why the MRC leader, MAURICE KAMTO, is very worried with the idea of running in the presidential election, as the flag bearer of another party

Many political observers were surprise when an official of Hon Pierre Kwemo’s ‘Union Mouvements Socialistes” UMS Party, that is, the Union of Socialists Movements, told he media that  any interested member of the party, and strangely enough, new members as well,  would be free to participate in the election to select the party’s flag bearer for the 2025 presidential election. This was supposed to take place at the Extraordinary Congress of UMS Party that was held in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, on Saturday, May 31, 2025. The major item on the agenda of the extraordinary congress, was supposed to be the election or designation of the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election

Why many political observers were surprised, was because there is no major political party, in this country, that in practical terms would allow somebody that has just joined the party, the possibility to become the party’s presidential candidate. This was strange.  More so, for a patty that has the no – nonsense Hon Pierre Kwemo as the Founding National President and principal sponsor.

Speculation That UMS Was To Endorse Prof Maurice Kamto As Its Presidential Candidate

Meanwhile, following the rather strange or surprising declaration to the media by an official of the UMS Party, a speculation or rumour started running riot.  It was alleged that the National President of UMS, Hon Pierre Kwemo, and the National President of MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, had struck a deal for Kamto to run for the 2025 presidential election on the ticket of UMS. This allegation flooded the social media, and a number of traditional media organs in the country also carried it.

But it should be noted that the MRC leader and presidential aspirant, Maurice Kamto, was scheduled to be in Paris, France on that May 31, 2025 that the UMS Congress had to hold in Yaounde. He had to chair a mega rally that was organized by a group of Cameroonians in the diaspora Paris, to support his candidature for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon. So it was clear that contrary to the rumour, Prof Kamto could not be at the Extraordinary Congress of the UMS Party in Yaounde on that May 31.  

The Rumour Continues 

Meanwhile the speculation or rumour that Prof Maurice Kamto will run for the 2025 presidential election on the ticket of the UMS party, did not go away after the Extraordinary Congress of the UMS in Yaounde. This was partly because the UMS ended up not designating its 2025 presidential candidate at the congress, as was announced before the congress by the party.  Rather the position of the party on the 2025 presidential election is expected to be contained in the set of resolutions adopted at the party’s congress, which so far have not been made public. This has sparked another speculation or rumour, that it is when the President of the Republic will convene Cameroonians to the polls for the presidential election, that UMS will allegedly declare that it has designated Kamto as its presidential candidate.

MRC In Difficulties Following Its Boycott Of The 2020 Municipal Elections  

The view of The Mentor News on this issue is that as long as Hon Pierre Kwemo’s UMS Party has not designated or announced its flag bearer for the 2025 presidential election, we cannot rule out the possibility of Kamto becoming the party’s presidential candidate. It would be recalled that MRC boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections, in the country, that were jointly organized on February 9, 2020. As a result, the party is not represented in a municipal council, the National Assembly or the Senate, and so in accordance to the Electoral Code, does not qualify to give investiture to a candidate for the presidential election.

It should be noted that MRC members and their friends, have since l been forcing a public debate on the Imperative and Representative Mandates. They have been arguing for example that some councilors of the Bafoussam 1 Council, who were dismissed as militants from the SDF and they later joined the MRC, are now MRC councilors. They claim this has given the right to MRC, to be able to give investiture to the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. This is based on their partisan argument on the issue of Imperative and Representative Mandates.  However others argue that a party cannot boycott the municipal elections, and later claims to have councilors. That is, somebody that was voted councilor, on the SDF ticket, cannot become a councilor of another party, even if he is dismissed as a militant from the SDF.

The Plan B Of Maurice Kamto And His Men

Whatever the case, dependable sources in the MRC have since last year repeatedly assured that while the party and its leader are pushing on with the public debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates, the party leader and some of his close collaborators, have since secretly negotiated a Plan B for Maurice Kamto, to run in  the 2025 presidential election. In other words, Kamto and his men have since secretly negotiated with one of the 18 parties in the country, that officially has the power to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, for him to run on the ticket of that party. But their strategy has also being to keep the arrangement secret until the last minute.

Some sources in the MRC have since last year been hinting that the Plan B for Maurice Kamto’s participation in the 2025 presidential election, is run on the ticket of Hon Pierre Kwemo’s UMS Party.  But this has so far neither been confirmed or completely rejected by Kamto’s men in the MRC. Last year, a highly placed source in the coalition that supports Kamto’s candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, known as Political Alliance for Change, and that has Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu as National Coordinator, disclosed to The Mentor News that negotiation was then ongoing with Hon Pierre Kwemo, for UMS Party to join the coalition. But so far the source later hinted that the National President of UMS Party, Pierre Kwemo, preferred direct talks between Kamto’s MRC and his party on the issue of Kamto having to run in the 2025 presidential election, on the ticket of UMS.

Kamto and his men have been trying to avoid getting into a negotiation with a party that has a leadership that the CPDM regime can bully, manipulate or bribe to deny at the last minute to give investiture to him for the 2025 presidential election. That is why among the few parties available that can give Kamto the investiture, the MRC leader and his men prefer Hon Pierre Kwemo’s UMS  Party, for Kwemo has over the years in politics shown that he is not somebody that the CPDM or Biya regime can intimidate, and that he is not a hungry man.

Why Maurice Kamto Is Worried

But there is no doubt that the greatest wish of Prof Maurice Kamto and his MRC Party, is that he should be the party’s candidate, or better still the flag bearer of the party at the 2025 presidential election. For one thing, it is being said that for the President of a political party to be the presidential candidate of another party, he has to first resign from the post of National President of his party.  This means that if Maurice Kamto has to run for the 2025 presidential election on the ticket of the UMS or any other party, he must first resign as National President of MRC.

Some people will not see that as a big problem, with the thinking that after the presidential election, the MRC can still convene a congress and vote Maurice Kamto back to the post of National President. But Kamto knows that in such a situation things will not be that easy as they look, especially if the ruling CPDM again wins the 2025 presidential election.  From all indications, there is no doubt that one of the biggest wishes of the CPDM regime in politics today, is to see Maurice Kamto out of the leadership of MRC.

CPDM Regime Will Do Everything To Block Kamto’s Return To MRC Leadership Position

Maurice Kamto and his men in MRC know that so well. And that is why Kamto in particular is very worried with the idea to run for the 2025 presidential election on the ticket of another party.  Kamto fears, and rightly too, that if he resigns from the post of National President of MRC, to be able to be a candidate in the presidential election by getting investiture from another party, that might be his end as National  President of MRC. For there is no doubt that if the CPDM wins the presidential election, the regime will do everything to try to block the return of Maurice Kamto to the post of  National President of the MRC.  And that will be his end in politics. If MRC defies the regime and use other ways to push back Kamto in the post of National President, the CPDM Government will reject the process as illegal and will refuse to recognize Kamto as National President of MRC. That will be another big problem for Kamto and MRC.

Another reason why MRC officials are worried with the idea for the party’s leader (Kamto) to run for the presidential election as the flag bearer of another party, is that such a move will during the election period instead help to sell  the image of the other party at home and abroad, at the detriment of MRC. And soon after the presidential election, there is expected to be the legislative and municipal elections, where MRC and the other party will be expected to both participate.