Deputy SG of CPDM, Gregoire Owona, Asserts That Though Maurice Kamto Cannot Be MRC Presidential Candidate, He Can Run On The Ticket Of Another Party

A secret proposal by some overzealous members of the regime, that the Electoral Code be modified to bar a party leader from running for election on the ticket of another party, was rejected

In announcing the decision for MRC to boycott the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, Kamto declared that he was aware of the consequences

 One of the possible consequences Kamto cited then was that MRC would not be able to participate in the next presidential election.

There is no question that MRC is not qualified or authorized to send in a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, since the party is neither represented in the National Assembly, the Senate or in a municipal council. The Electoral Code that was modified in 2012 is clear that only political parties that are represented in either the National Assembly, the Senate or in a municipal council can give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. But since the MRC boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections which took place on February 9, 2020, the party is thus not represented in the National Assembly or in a municipal council. MRC also did not participate at the last senatorial elections, since it has no councilors. Senators are voted by members of an Electoral College, and a large majority of members of the Electoral College, are municipal councilors. So it made no sense for MRC to participate in the last senatorial election.

Kamto’s 2019 Declaration On The Election Boycott  

The consequences of the boycott of the 2020 legislative and municipal elections on MRC are thus in reality not a surprise especially to the party’s leader, Maurice Kamto, a law professor. In the declaration that he made in late 2019 at  MRC’s headquarters in Yaounde, to announce the decision for the party to boycott the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, Kamto said he was quite aware of  the possible consequences of  the boycott.  He said with the boycott of the legislative and municipal elections, MRC would possibly not be able to participate in the next senatorial elections, as well as in the next presidential election if it was to come up before another legislative and municipal election. The 2019 declaration is there in a video, and The Mentor News has it.

So it clear that all the claims or declarations that Kamto have put up since December 2023, that MRC will send in a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, were in reality just a distraction, for he knew well that it would not be possible, especially when the legislative and municipal elections that were due for February 2025, were last year postponed by President Biya to 2026.  Kamto has all along succeeded to distract many elite and militants of the ruling CPDM, with the claim that MRC will participate in the 2025 presidential election, or that he will run for the election on the ticket of the MRC.  CPDM officials have been wasting their time in sterile arguments to counter Kamto’s insistence that MRC will participate in the 2025 presidential election.

Kamto Begins To Get Serious

Meanwhile with the approach of the presidential election, Kamto is becoming more serious on the question of his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.  Back in December 2023, Hon  Jean Michel  Nintcheu, who was sacked from the SDF on February 25, 2023 alongside over 30 other militants for anti – party activities, struck a deal with the  MRC leader, Maurice Kamto, that the latter would be given investiture to run in the 2025 presidential election by the former’s ‘new party’, FCC.. They have also since been arguing that Nintcheu who entered parliament on the ticket of the SDF, is now an MP of his party, FCC. But that argument so far holds no water.  One party cannot give investiture to a candidate to run in the legislative election, and campaign for him to win the election, and then while in the National Assembly he moves over to another party, and claims that he is now MP of that party. That is not how things work. The Mentor News did an elaborate treatment of this issue last Wednesday, January 29, 2025. The article is on the website.

Meanwhile at the press conference in Yaounde on January 30, Prof Kamto made it known that besides FCC, he can still get investiture from one of the parties that is authorized, to give investiture to a candidate for the presidential election. He recalled that at the 2018 presidential elections, three of the candidates ran on the tickets of parties that they were not militants. He was certainly referring to Cabral Libii Ngue who was given investiture by UNIVERS Party, Barrister Akere Muna who was given investiture by FPD, and Frankline Afanwi Ndifor (Prophet Franck) now of blessed memory, who ran on the ticket of MCNC.

Plan B For Maurice Kamto / Attempts To Block Kamto

There is no doubt that Maurice Kamto and his close collaborators, have secretly negotiated a Plan B with one of the 18 political parties that are authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. They are keeping the name of the party secret, to avoid the likely situation where some member of the regime will go behind to mount pressure or to propose deals, for the party to reverse its decision to give investiture to Kamto.

As aforementioned, some overzealous members of the regime have been doing everything to try to block Maurice Kamto from participating in the 2025 presidential election. As Kamto said it himself in a recent post on social media, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, has since 2023 repeatedly declare that he (Kamro) will not be candidate at the 2025 presidential election. But the minister  has never given any legal justification as to why Kamto will not run in the election Quite a number of other overzealous CPDM elite and officials have made such allegations, but without providing any legal backing. While the Law or Electoral Code disqualifies the MRC Party from giving investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, since the party is neither represented in the National Assembly, the Senate or the municipal council, there is no law that stops Kamto from getting investiture from another party that is authorized to do so.

 Kamto Must First Resign From MRC?

Hon Essomba Bengono Engelbet, MP of Mefou and Akono Division in the Central Region, who is one of those CPDM elite that want to see Kamto blocked from being a candidate at the 2025 presidential election, recently declared over Vision 4 TV in Yaounde, that if Maurice Kamto has to run on the ticket of another party at the presidential election, he must first resign from the post of National President of MRC. But he did not cite any Law or text to back what he said.

In fact The Mentor learnt that some overzealous members of the CPDM regime raised a secret proposal in –house, that the Government should get the Electoral Code modified, to state that if somebody is the national president of a political party, he cannot run in an election on the ticket of another party. That was certainly designed to target Prof Maurice Kamto. Fortunately a majority of members of the regime that were contacted, rejected the proposal, saying that it would be clear to the international community that the modification of the Electoral Code was designed to target  one person, Prof Maurice Kanto.

Gregoire Owona Clears The Air

However the level headed Deputy Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPDM, Gregoire Owona, who is also Minister of Labour and Social Security, in an interview that was the lead story of French language daily, “Realites’ last Friday, January 31, 2025, rightly explained why MRC does not fulfill the conditions that can enable it to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. But Minister Owona asserted that: “ Mais si Monsieur Kamto veut etre candidat, il trouvera un autre parti pour presenter sa candidature”. That is, “But if Mr Kamto wants to be candidate, he will find another party to present his candidature”. This is the simple fact. Of course the “another party” party that Minister Gregoire Owoina is talking about, is one of the 18 parties that are authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.