Constitutional Council Examining Petitions For The Rejection Of Candidacies Of Three Opposition Leaders That Were Validated By ELECAM.

 The Petition Against IISSA TCHIROMA’S Candidacy, Comes After The Party’s Vice President, OUSMANOU SA’ALLY, And An MP, SALAMANA, In July Resigned And Created Pro-regime Parties.

 CABRAL LIBII On July 29, 2025 Floored Pa KONA ROBERT In Another Case That The Latter Filed. This Gives CABRAL LIBII A Better Chance To Floor Pa KONA At The Constitutional Council.

There Is Fear That The Petition Filed Against The Candidacy Of DZIPAN HILAIRE Of ‘Mouvement Progressiste’, May Create Problems For him, Because Of A Matter Pending In Court.

The President of Constitutional Council, CLEMENT ATANGANA, Has Announced That Public Hearings On The 35 Petitions The Council Received, Will Start on Monday, August 4, 2025, at 10.30 am  

Besides some 30 petitions (appeals) that the Constitutional Council received against the July 26, 2025 decisions that were taken by the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, to reject the candidacies of some presidential aspirants, the Constitutional Council also received a number of petitions demanding the rejection or annulment of the candidacies of some opposition leaders, that were validated by the ELECAM for the October 12, 2025 presidential election.

The biggest surprise among the petitions that the Constitutional Council received is that against the candidacy of the National President and presidential candidate of FSNC, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, former member of the Biya Government.  The petition was filed by a group of persons that claim to be members of the Directorate of FSNC, and who say they are against the candidacy of Issa Tchiroma for the October 12, presidential election.

It should be noted that after resigning from Government on June 24, 2025, Issa Tchiroma Bakary travelled to his native Garoua where he on Wednesday, June 25 declared his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election. No FSNC official or militant since then came out to protest against Tchiroma’s candidacy, until this group that has come out to demand that the Constitutional Council should reject the candidacy.  Issa Tchiroma has so far not publicly made any statement in relation to the petition filed at the Constitutional Council against his candidacy.

Observers have no doubt that the Yaounde regime is behind this new attempt to try to weaken or destabilize Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC, after he resigned from the Government late June, declared his candidacy for the presidential election, and made some scathing attacks or criticisms against the regime. In the same month of July, the regime had already gotten the Vice President of FSNC, Ousmanou Aman Sa’ally aka Yerima Dewa, and the FSNC’s MP for Diamare Centre (Maroua Centre), Salamana Amadou Ali II,  to resign and create their own parties, All Cameroonian Congress  (ACC) and ‘Parti Republicaine’ respectively, that the  Ministry of Territorial Administration rapidly legalized.

Issa Tchiroma”s Reaction On Rejection Of Maurice Kamto’s Candidacy 

 It does not look like a coincidence that the latest move by the regime to create problems for Issa Tchiroma Bakary, came after he on Sunday, July 27, 2025, issued a communiqué on the rejection of the candidacy of Prof Maurice Kamto. In the communiqué, Issa Tchiroma came out strong that:  “Je demande avec force et conviction que le  Professeur Maurice Kamto soit retabli dans ses droit et qu’il beneficie sans restriction, des prerogatives que confere la loi, au meme title que tout acteur politique ou citoyen protégé par la constitution”,   loosely translated as: “I strongly demand and with conviction, that Professor Maurice Kamto’s rights should be reinstated, and that he should without any restriction benefit from prerogatives conferred on him by the Law, just the same like any other political actor or citizen protected by the Constitution”.

It should be noted that Issa Tchiroma Bakary signed the communiqué not as President of FSNC, but as candidate of the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Then the very next day, which was Monday, July 28, 2025, and the last day for the Constitutional Council to receive appeals and petitions, a petition was deposited by a so called Provisional Bureau of FSNC, calling for the rejection of Issa Tchiroma’s candidacy. This was definitely not a coincidence. Isa Tchiroma’s attention now has to be focused on saving his own candidacy, than on Kamto’s own situation.

Cabral Libii Floors Pa Kona  Robert Again, But – – –    

Meanwhile, repeated warnings by the Far North Court of Appeal in Maroua, to Pa Kona Robert, the former National President of PCRN, to stop calling himself the Founding President of PCRN and acting in the name of the party, did not stop him from still filing a case at the Mfou Court of First Instance (Magistrate Court) in the Centre Region. He also went on to file a petition at the Constitutional Council, against Cabral Libii. In the petition to the Constitutional Council, Pa Kona terms Cabral Libii an imposture, insisting that he, and not Cabral Libii, is the leader of PCRN.

As for the case at the Mfou Court of First Instance,  Pa Kona Robert had prayed the court to annul the resolutions of  the PCRN congress that held at Nkolafamba in the outside of Yaounde from May 23 – 24, 2025, and designated Cabral Libii Ngue as the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. He claimed that the congress was irregularly convened, and that it was illegal. However the Mfou Court in its ruling on the matter on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, rejected the demand of Pa Kona, and thus maintained the resolutions of the congress. The court thus confirmed the legality of Cabral Libii being PCRN candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election.

 A Big Victory For Cabral Libii

This was definitely a big victory for Cabral Libii and the PCRN, considering as aforementioned, that Pa Kona also filed a petition at the Constitutional Council demanding the rejection of Cabral Libii’s candidacy for the October 12 presidential election, which was validated by the Electoral Board of ELECAM on Saturday, July 26, 2025.  If the Mfou Court, had ruled that the PCRN congress that held in Nkolafamba, and designated Cabral Libii as the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election was  illegal, that would have meant a big trouble for him at the  Constitutional Council, with the petition filed by Pa Kona.

But as things now stand, it is almost certain that Pa Kona’s petition at the Constitutional Council will be rejected. Worth noting that in the  protracted conflict of leadership in PCRN between Pa Robert  Kona and Cabral Libii Ngue, Pa Kona who is being backed by some members of the regime, has lose a case at the Garoua Court of First Instance that was filed by the camp of Cabral Libii, he has lose two case at the Court of First in his native Kaele in the Far North Region that were both filed by him, and he has as well lose two cases  at the Far North Court of Appeal that were also both filed by him.

Petition Against The Candidacy Of Dzipan Hilaire Of MP

Meanwhile, the Douala based President 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. 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 story goes that Jean Jacques Ekindi resigned from the CPDM in 1991 and joined the opposition. He went on to create the MP Party that same year. One of the persons that joined Ekindi in that 1991, was the then youthful Dzipan Hilaire, 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.

In late 2020, Jean Jacques Ekindi decided to return to the CPDM, but Dzipan Hilaire, not surprisingly, refused to follow him to the CPDM.   In a high level meeting of the MP Party that held in Dibombari, Mungo Division of the Littoral Region, Dzipan Hialaire was designated the new leader of MP. But along the line, Dzipan’s strong stance on many issues against the regime, reportedly created problems for Ekindi in the CPDM, as his comrades asked why he left the MP Party in the hands of a strong opposition or a strong critic of the regime.  Ekindi at one point, convened a small meeting, purported to be meeting of the MP Party, and designated one unknown face in local politics in Douala, Madam Christiane Moulende, as the leader MP.

Case On Leadership Conflict Still Pending In Court

Dzipan and his supporters cried foul, questioning how a declared CPDM militant (Ekindi), could come and designate the leader of another party.  Dzipan Hilaire took the matter to court. Unfortunately, the court has been dragging on with the case by several adjournments. Dzipan’s supporters think that the court received special instruction to keep dragging on with the matter, as a strategy to block Dzipan being the presidential candidate of MP against the CPDM candidate, Paul Biya.

Dzipan  Hilaire’s candidacy was the  lone candidacy that ELECAM received from the MP Party. The Electoral Board validated the candidacy. But there is fear that with the petition filed by Christiane Moulende at the Constitutional Council, Dzipan candidacy might run into trouble, considering that the case over the leadership conflict in MP between Dzipan  Hialaire and Jean Jacques Ekindi’s Christiane Moulende, is still pending in a court in Douala.

It should be noted that since Ekindi came from CPDM and designated Christiane Moulende as the new President of the MP Party, she had not seen in the political scene, until early this week when she resurfaced to deposit a petition at the Constitutional Council against the candidacy of Dzipan Hilaire, who has visibly been the one that has been leading the MP Party since Ekindi abandoned it for the CPDM.

 Public Hearings To Begin On Monday, July 4

Meanwhile, the President of the Constitutional Council, Clement Atangana, has announced that public hearings on the 35 petitions that the Council received in relation to candidacies for the October 12, 2025 presidential election will start on Monday, August 4, 2025 at from 10.30 am. The venue for the hearings will be the conference hall of the Constitutional Council located at the Yaounde Conference Centre.