Hon CABRAL LIBII Says Douala Group Contacted Him With Proposal Of Single Opposition Candidate For The Presidential, Whereas The Group Had Its Candidate

Says PCRN Supports The Idea Of A Single Opposition Front, But That The Erroneous View That Only a Single Candidate Can Win The Presidential Election, Works To The Advantage Of The CPDM

 Like The SDF, The PCRN Leader Says What Is Blocking The Opposition From Wining The Presidential Election Is High Abstention Rate, And Not The Issue Of Single Candidate

The National President of PCRN and the party‘s candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, says the party has always been open to discussion on the single or consensus   candidate for the opposition at the presidential election. But he says PCRN has also been preparing to go it alone, in case there is no consensus or consensual opposition candidate. Cabral Libii was speaking while a guest on a prorgamme over Info Tv in Yaounde, in the evening of Friday, August 15, 2025. The PCRN leader was interviewed in the Tv programme by Senior Journalist, Jean Jacques Nzdzie.

Meanwhile the PCRN leader muted that there is a problem of credibility or honesty with most of the groups or persons that, spring up and claim that their mission is to work on the political project for a single or consensus candidate for the opposition, at the presidential election. He recalled for example the case of the Douala Group. He disclosed that the leaders of the Douala Group, who included Ekane Anicet of MANIDEM and George Sam Mbaka of AFP, contacted him when the Group was created, and talked about the project. He said he assured them that PCRN was open to discussion on the political project. But Cabral Libii said to his embarrassment, he only realized later that the Douala Group had their candidate. Though he did not mention the name of the said candidate, he was certainly talking about Prof Maurice Kamto of MRC, who was given investiture to be candidate at the October 12, 2025 presidential election, by Ekane Anicet of MANIDEM.

It would be recalled that when the news went public on July 17, 2025 that Ekane Anicet had signed  the investiture letter for Maurice Kamto to run for the  October 12 presidential election on the ticket of  MANIDEM, Sam Mbaka claimed that he only learnt about the deal that morning, when Ekane called and informed him. But that was a lie. The discussions between Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu, National Coordinator of the Political Alliance for Change that was created to support the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, and the President of MANIDEM, Ekane Anicet, for the latter to give the investiture to Maurice Kamto, took place a modern restaurant at Bonapriso Douala, owned and run by Sam Mbaka. It was not for nothing that Nintcheu and Ekane agreed to hold their secret discussions at that venue.

High Abstention Rate At Presidential Elections In Cameroon  

Meanwhile, on this issue of the 2025 presidential election, it has been observed that the PCRN of Hon Cabral Libii, and the SDF of Hon Joshua Osih, shares the same views on certain issues. For example, just as the SDF leader, Hon Joshua Osih and his party have been saying, the leader of the PCRN, Hon Cabral Libii argued in the Info Tv programme on August 5, 2025, that the problem which has been blocking the opposition in Cameroon from winning the presidential election, is not the issue of a single candidate as some people erroneously say or think. To them, it is rather the issue of high abstention rate of voters that has been the problem.

The PCRN leader said when one takes a look at the statistics of the 2018 presidential election for example, he would realize that almost 50 % of registered voters whom he assumed were opposition supporters and sympathizers, did not vote.  It should be noted that the statistics of the 2018 presidential election, shows that: The total number of registered voters was 6,667,753 (Six million, six hundred and sixty seven thousand, seven hundred and fifty three), and only a total of 3,590,681 (Three million, five hundred and ninety, and six hundred and eighty one) persons voted, giving a percentage of 53.85 % participation. This meant that over 3 million registered voters failed to vote. President Paul Biya ,who won the 2018 presidential election, received 2, 521,934 Votes (Two million, five hundred and twenty one thousand, nine hundred and thirty four votes).

The PCRN like the SDF, believe the votes that Biya received were all the registered voters of the CPDM and its allies, and that the over 3 million registered voters that did not vote, were opposition militants and sympathizers. The two parties thus tend t to think that if the over 3 million registered voters had turned out to cast their votes, with  the bulk going to whichever of the  opposition candidates, the  opposition would have won the 2018 presidential election. It should be noted that it was a similar situation at the 2011 presidential election, with high abstention rate.  To the PCRN and the SDF, the first major thing that is stopping or holding back an opposition victory at the presidential election in Cameroon, is high abstention by opposition supporters and sympathizers. They argue that the fact is that, while the militants of the CPDM and its allies that have registered massively turnout to vote, millions of registered Cameroonians that want change, ironical do not go to vote, but complain about the poor results of the opposition.

The Senegalese Example

The leader of PCRN, Cabral Libii, cited the example of the last presidential election that took place in Senegal.  He noted that Senegal has a two round presidential system, and that there were as many as 17 presidential candidates, including the candidate of the ruling party, in the first round of the election that took place on March 24, 2024. But Cabral Libii pointed out that because of the determination that the Senegalese had to vote for change, one of the opposition candidates, 40 years Bassirou Diomaye Faye (and Ousmane Sonko), won the presidential election in the first round. He said that can also happen in Cameroon, if the majority of registered Cameroonians that  are for change, are determined to massively go out to the polls on October 12, 2025  to vote, and also to protect their votes.

Cabral Libii once more reiterated that the obstacle to an opposition victory at the presidential election in Cameroon is not, the matter that the opposition does not put up a single candidate or consensus candidate, but rather the high abstention rate of Cameroonians that want change.  He said it is an irony of wanting change and not going to vote, leaving the voting to the conservatives that want to maintain the status quo.

Proposal For The Opposition To Jointly Fight Against Electoral Fraud

The National President of PCRN and presidential candidate, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue,  noted that one major things that facilitate the victory of the ruling CPDM at elections in Cameroon, is electoral fraud through  the creation of fake polling stations, stuffing of ballot boxes and falsification of results from polling stations. He said PCRN has been working to come up with concrete strategies on how to puncture electoral fraud by the CPDM.  He admitted that the major weakness of the opposition to fight electoral fraud, has been the fact that no opposition is able to deploy polling agents to the over 30,000 polling stations across the country, and that so far only the ruling CPDM that uses State machinery and personnel has been able to do that.

Cabral Libii said the problem for the opposition is not only finding the over 30,000 credible polling agents, but the fact most of them demand to be paid, besides other logistics that a party if supposed to provide. “Somebody will come up to you and offer to be a polling agent at the presidential election, and that he very much wants change in the country. You happily welcome him, and the next thing he would ask you, is how much money he is to be paid. There is also the problem that at the end of the voting, and vote counting exercise at the polling stations, some of the polling agents of opposition parties, sell their copies of PVs to CPDM, and vamoosed. When party waits and does not see its polling agents return, and try to call them, the party realizes that they have put off their phones”, he disclosed.

The PCRN leader said there are people who just sit and blame the opposition for this or that, not knowing what some of the serious ones are facing. He disclosed that the PCRN through him will in the coming days, contact other opposition parties and their presidential candidates, with a package proposal on what they can jointly do, and how they can jointly do it, to curb electoral fraud across the country at the October 12, 2025 presidential election. It is a proposal that will definitely find favour with some opposition parties like the SDF and UNDP. The SDF leadership in the last couple of months has been saying that, the one area where the opposition can succeed to come together with a united front, for the 2025 presidential election, is putting up a united front to fight electoral fraud. The National President of UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, is also known to have expressed his support for such a united opposition front to fight against electoral malpractices.