2025 Presidential Elections: Will Major Opposition Parties Go In Separate Ranks, Agree On Limited Collaboration, Or Settle For Single Candidate In North – South Coalition?

UNDP leader, BELLO BOUBA MAIGARI, hold talks with SDF Leader, JOSHUA OSIH. MRC delegation, led, by 1^st Vice President, MAMADOU MOTA, Meets BELLO BOUBA. Another MRC delegation meets ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY. Douala Group resurrects from ‘death’, and meets Bello Bouba.

 The National President of FSNC, ISSA TCHIROMA, who had earlier met with Barrister AKERE MUNA, says he is in favour of a single opposition candidate, to face the CPDM Candidate at the election.

Are the meetings being held by leaders of some major opposition parties, part of the political project to create a NORTH – SOUTH COALITION for the 2025 presidential election?

  The National President of UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, who on June 28, 2025 was designated as the candidate of his party for the 2025 presidential election, on Wednesday, July 2, 2025 in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, held talks with the National Chairman of the SDF, Hon Joshua Nambangi Osih, who is also the designated candidate of his party for the presidential election. The meeting reportedly took place at the Yaounde residence of Bello Bouba.

The UNDP leader on that same day, also received a delegation of Prof Maurice Kamto’s MRC Party, led by the 1^st Vice National President of the party, Mamadou Mota.  The UNDP leader was accompanied in the meeting with the MRC delegation, by Maidadi Saidou, a member of the UNDP Central Committee.

The different parties have so far not made any statement on what was discussed at the meetings, though observers think that the discussions were certainly related to the 2025 presidential election. The talks came on the heels of the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP that held in Yaounde on Saturday, June 28, 2025, and designated the party’s leader, as the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. That tacitly meant that the UNDP, which in line with the spirit of the 1997 alliance with the ruling CPDM, supported the CPDM candidate (incumbent Paul Biya) at the 2004, 2011, and 2018 presidential elections, had finally broken up the unholy alliance, and thus returned to the opposition. That was what opened the way for the meetings between the UNDP and SDF leaders, and the other meeting between the UNDP leader and the MRC delegation.

Meanwhile the Douala Group that was initially working on the political project for a  single opposition candidate for the 2025 presidential election, and which the self – declared  leader of the Group, Ekane Anicet, National President of MANIDEM, issued a communiqué in early June suspending it indefinitely, has silently ‘resurrected from death’.  Ekane Anicet travelled to Yaounde later this week, where he met the National President of UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, to talk about the political project of the Douala Group. Hmmmmmmmm!

Worthy of note also, that the UNDP leader, Bello Bouba Maigari, invited the leader of  the NOW Movement, Barrister Akere Muna, who is also a 2025 presidential candidate of Prof Nkou Mvondo’s Parti Univers, to the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of UNDP on June 28, 2025, which was more like the congress of the party.

North – South Coalition!

Talking about the presidential election, it would be recalled that words started circulating in early June that, Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC and Bello Bouba’s UNDP, were going to terminate their alliances with the ruling CPDM. At the same time, words also started circulating about the possible creation of the North – South Coalition by major opposition parties, as the appropriate measure to be able to dislodge from power at the 2025 presidential election, the CPDM or Biya regime that has been hanging on to power for over  four decades. Worth noting that what has been termed North – South Coalition in Cameroon politics, is a political project to bring together major opposition parties of the Grand North, precisely Bello Bouba’s UNDP and Issa Tchiroma’s FSNC, and major opposition parties in the Southern part of the country which include Joshua Osih’s SDF, Maurice Kamto’s MRC, Cabral Libii’s PCRN, Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya’s CDU and Pierre Kwemo’s UMS, to form a powerful opposition coalition for the 2025 presidential election.

As regard the presidential aspirant, Barrister Akere Muna, of the NOW Movement, it should be noted that Prof Nkou Mvondo’s ‘Parti Univers’, on whose ticket he is to run for the presidential election, is certainly not a major opposition party. But thanks to Muna’s personal capacity and his NOW Movement, he can be considered as part of the major opposition.

Meanwhile speculations about the eventual creation of the North – South Coalition, has since intensified, with the  termination last week by Bello Bouba’s UNDP and Issa Tchiroma’s FSNC, of their alliances with the ruling CPDM.

  Issa Tchiroma Bakary For A Single Opposition Candidate

Early last week, the National President of FSNC, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who was also Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, resigned from Government and announced his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon. That meant an end to the alliance between Paul Biya’s CPDM and Issa Tchiroma’s FSNC. After the declaration of his candidacy, Issa Tchiroma in a video message, stressed the fact that Cameroonians very much want to see change in the country this year, and expressed  his wish to see the opposition come together, and designate a single candidate to face the candidate of the ruling CPDM at the 2025 presidential election. But it is not clear whether Issa Tchiroma who has already declared his candidacy for the presidential election, will be prepared to withdraw and support the candidate of another party. In Cameroon, opposition candidates always do say that they support the idea of a single candidate at the presidential election, but just in realty no one is prepared to withdraw for the other.

Meanwhile the FSNC leader, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, this week received in his native Garoua, a delegation from Maurice Kamto’s MRC.  Another meeting was reportedly programmed for a later date. It has also been reported that when Issa Tchiroma was still in Yaounde, he was met by the presidential aspirant, Barrister Akere Muna, who tried to convince him to support the idea of a single or unique opposition candidate for the 2025 presidential election, coupled with the idea of a transitional government if the single candidate of the opposition wins the election. The revived Douala Group of Anicet Ekane, is said to have also taken a rendezvous with Issa Tchiroma, to present their project.

The Three Options For Major Opposition Parties

The return  of Bello Bouba’s UNDP and Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC to the opposition, seem to have ignited some glimmers of hope, that, major opposition parties can probably agree to sit down and talk about their participation in the 2025 presidential election.

There are three possible options on the table now for major opposition parties, as regard their participation at the 2025 presidential election.

North – South Coalition with A Candidate 

One of the options is that major opposition parties can come together in the North – South Coalition, and designate a single candidate for the presidential election expected to hold in October. This is however the most difficult option, for the major opposition parties that, have all already designated their candidates. The main question will be – Who will be willing, to withdraw his candidature, to support the candidate of another party?  This has always been a big problem or deadlock for major opposition parties.  From the look of things, it is difficult to see a situation where either, Maurice Kamto, Joshua Osih, Cabral Libii or Bello Bouba Maigari, will be willing to withdraw his candidature, for him and his party to support another candidate. Let’s however assume that it is difficult, but not impossible.

The Option Of Collaborating To Fight Electoral Fraud, And Share Polling Agents  

The other option will be for the major opposition parties in the North – South Coalition, to agree to jointly fight electoral fraud as well as to cooperate in having representatives at polling stations, at the presidential election. Sharing representatives at polling stations means that the major opposition parties can for example identify the Divisions (58) or regions (10) where each of the parties are well implanted, and thus can provide polling agents at all the polling stations. The representatives at polling stations, that is the polling agents  of those parties, will also have represent the candidates of  parties of  the coalition,  that are not well implanted in those areas,  and thus not not have polling agents there.

It is indisputable that one of the biggest problems that opposition parties and their candidates face at presidential elections, is that of the absence of representatives in many polling stations, because there is no opposition party that is well implanted in all  the 10 regions or 58 Divisions of the country. So it has always happened that there are several areas where the opposition parties that send in candidates for presidential election, have no representatives at polling stations, and of course the ruling CPDM takes advantage of that to do what it  is best at doing in elections –  fraud.

Meanwhile, this option of collaboration by major opposition parties at the 2025 presidential election is an option that the National Chairman of the SDF and presidential aspirant, Hon Joshua Osih, has been recommending or proposing to major opposition parties, considering how difficult it is for the opposition to agree on a single candidate.  The UNDP leader, Bello Bouba Maigari, is also said to be inclined to this option. This option means that opposition parties that are members of the group or the coalition will send in their candidates for the presidential election, and the parties will collaborate by fighting electoral fraud and sharing representative or polling agents at the 26,000 polling stations across the country. This is an option that major opposition parties can agree on, though the effectiveness of   the option, especially in sharing representatives at polling stations, is something that remains to be seen.

 The Option Of Going In For The Election In Disperse Ranks, As In The Past     

The third option for major opposition parties at the 2025 presidential election is that they disagree on everything, and as usual go in for the election in disperse ranks and against each other, and of course, once more facilitate the victory of the CPDM.

A senior official of the SDF, Barrister Achile Leudjo, who expressed his personal opinion on the issue over Equinoxe TV in Douala last week, said if Bello Bouba and Issa Tchiroma instead come in to increase the number of opposition candidates at the presidential election, they will not be doing any good to the opposition or to the country, as that will instead help the CPDM to win the election. To Barrister Leudjeu, Bello Bouba and Issa Tchiroma should either chose to support the candidates of the SDF, PCRN or MRC at the presidential election.

But can the militants of UNDP and FSNC in the Grand North that, forced the leaderships of their parties to terminate the alliance with the CPDM, support such a proposal by Barrister Achile Leudjo! It looks very unlikely. It should be noted that the people of the Grand North, are clamoring for the return of power that they say Ahidjo gave Biya in 1982, to that part of the country.