Candidacy Of DZIPAN HILAIRE – The First Ever Candidacy Validated By ELECAM, That Has Been Rejected By The Constitutional Council

Why many political observers consider DZIPAN HILAIRE MARCAIRE, as a victim of ingratitude and tribalism in politics exhibited by Jean Jacques Ekindi.

The Douala based leader of ‘Mouvement Progressiste’, MP Party, Dzipan Hilaire Marcaire, was one of the 13 persons whose candidacy was validated by the Electoral Board of ELECAM, on July 26, 2025, for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. But the Constitutional Council received a petition from Madam Christiane Moulende, who also claims to be the leader of the MP Party, demanding the rejection of the candidacy of Dzipan Hilaire.

It should be noted that the Constitutional Council received a total of 35 petitions related to candidacies for the presidential elections, and hearing on the different petitions started on Monday, October 4, 2025. When the petition concerning Dzipan Hailaire’s candidacy came up at the Constitutional Council, the   representatives and Lawyers of ELECAM and the Ministry of Territorial Administration, argued that Christiane Moulende, who filed the petition against the candidacy of Dzipan at the Constitutional Council, according to Article 129 of the Electoral Code had no competence to do so. Christiane Moulende was asked to provide documented evidences which showed that she was the President of the MP Party, but  she could not do not so.

But to the surprise of many, the Constitutional Council whose President is the retired senior magistrate, Clement Atangana, still went ahead to reject the candidacy of Dzipan Hilaire. This was also the first time ever that the Constitutional Council that went operational in early 2018, rejected a candidacy that was validated by ELECAM.

The Background Of The Story

Jean Jacques Ekindi, who is a well- known name in Cameroon politics in the last four decades, resigned from the CPDM in 1991 and joined the opposition that rolled out a red carpet for him.  Ekindi went on to create the ‘Mouvement Progressiste’, MP Party, that same year. One of the persons that joined Ekindi in that 1991, was the then youthful Dzipan Hilaire Marcaire, a man with real opposition blood in his vein.  Dzipan Hilaire, who stood solidly by Ekindi over the years, became the most reliable collaborator that Ekindi could count on, and came to be considered by many as the real No. 2 in the MP Party, after Jean Jacques Ekindi.

After the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, Jean Jacques Ekindi surprised many by deciding to return to the CPDM that he left in 1991. He openly told militants of MP that those who wanted to follow him to CPDM were welcomed, and that those who did not want to do so, could either do what they wanted with the MP party, or go elsewhere. Dzipan Hilaire, not surprisingly, refused to follow Ekindi, whom he had stood by for three decades, to the CPDM.  Dzipan also worked so hard and rallied the militants of MP that did not follow Ekindi to the CPDM, to remain in the MP Party.

In a  grand meeting of the MP Party that held in Dibombari, Mungo Division of the Littoral Region, Dzipan Hialaire was designated the new leader of the party. But along the line, Dzipan’s position at the helm of  MP, reportedly created problems for Ekindi in the CPDM, as many of his Sawa comrades asked why he left the party  not only in the hands of a strong opposition or a strong critic of the regime, but a non Sawa, precisely a Bamileke.

After over a year that Ekindi abandoned the MP Party and went back to the CPDM, he briefly returned and convened a small controversial meeting of the MP Party. The meeting was of course boycotted by Dzipan and many other militants MP, who argued that Ekindi had become a CPDM militant, and could not thus convene a meeting of the MP Party.  But Ekindi went ahead with the small meeting, and designated one unknown face in local politics in Douala, Madam Christiane Moulende, his blood relation, as the new leader MP.

CPDM Militant Designate President Of MP!

Dzipan Halaire and his supporters cried foul, questioning how a CPDM militant (Ekindi), could come and designate the leader of another party.

It should be noted that after Jean Jacques Ekindi came from CPDM and designated Christiane Moulende as the new President of the MP Party, she disappeared from the political scene, until a few months ago, when she resurfaced through a communiqué which stated that she was the candidate of the MP Party for the 2025 presidential election, and that Dzipan Hilaire was not the designated candidate.   This was after Dzipan Hilaire declared his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.

But Dzipan  Hilaire’s candidacy was the  lone candidacy that ELECAM received from the MP Party, as Ekindi’s Christiane Moulende, not surprisingly, did not send in her candidacy. Then when the Electoral Board of ELECAM validated the candidacy of Dzipan Hialire for the October 7, 2025 presidential election, Jean Jacques Ekindi’s Christiane Moulende surfaced at the Constitutional Council with a petition.

Political Intervention

Many supporters and sympathizers of Dzipan Hilaire, in ‘Mouvement Progressiste’ Party in Douala, strongly believe that a member of the Constitutional Council, who is Sawa, influenced the decision of the Constitutional Council to reject Dzipan’s candidacy, as the Sawas or Doualas consider the MP Party as their indigenous party. This is because the MP Party is the only political party created by a real son of Douala, Jean Jacques Ekindi, holding its head above water.  The party has been having councilors and even at one time had a member of parliament.

It should be noted that the MP Party has over the years remained more of a Sawa or Douala party, and the main base of the party in Douala, has over the years being Douala I, the home of the Founding President of the party, Jean Jacques Ekindi. Worth noting that the Littoral Regional Coordinator of the ruling CPDM, is Laurent Esso, the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals. Both Laurent Esso and Jean Jacques Ekindi are not only from Douala 1 Sub –division, but they are both from Deido ‘village’. The fact is that even though MP has over the years being an opposition party, the Sawa CPDM elites, especially those who hail from Douala, do not want to see the party get into the hands of somebody who is non Sawa, especially a Bamilleke.  Many supporters and sympathizers of Dzipan Halaire, see the hands of the  Sawa elite in the Constitutional Council, behind the decision by the Constitutional Council to reject the candidacy of Dzipan Hilaire, even after ELECAM and MINAT, argued in his favour.

Victim Of Ingratitude And Tribalism In Politics  

Meanwhile, quite a number of Dzipan Hilaire Marcaire’s supporters and sympathizers, have, following the rejection of his candidacy by the Constitutional Council, been lashing out at Jean Jacque Ekindi for what they termed is a malicious exhibition of gross ingratitude to Dzipan Hilaire, who stood by him as well as worked so hard for the MP party since it was created in 1991, till when he abandoned the party to return to the CPDM a few years ago.  They have been asserting that without Dzipan, the MP Party would have died when Ekindi abandoned it for the CPDM.

One of the sympathizers of Dzipan Hilaire said it all in a social media post after the rejection of his candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election by the Constitutional Council. The post is loosely translated into English as: “It is unfortunately the end of the old battle by my dear Hilaire, faced with gross ingratitude in politics, whereas he was the one that fought so hard to maintain the flame of the party. Unfortunately when the fruits showed their first signs of appearing, the tree that was abandoned was suddenly invaded. So Sad!”.