KAMTO Says Financial Contributions That Were Made For His Presidential Election Campaign, Will Be Refunded To The Donors

This follows the contested decision that was taken by the Constitutional Council on August 5, 2025, to reject Kamto’s candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election.

 MRC Interim National President of MRC calls for calm after the rejection of Kamto’s candidacy.   

Kamto Says the decision to reject his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, was taken by the regime long ago

  The ‘former’ National President of MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, whose candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election on the ticket of the MANIDEM Party, was rejected by the Constitutional Council on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, has decided that funds that were raised through contributions by MRC militants and sympathizers for his presidential election campaign, will be refunded to the different persons that made the contribution. Kamto’s message is contained in an MRC communiqué that was signed by the Interim National Treasurer of the party, Dr. Appollinaire Legrand OKO, on Wednesday, August 6, 2025.

The Interim National Treasurer of MRC in the communiqué recalled that on January 30, 2025, the party officially launched an operation led by the National Treasurer of the party, to raise funds for Prof Kamto’s presidential election campaign.  “Following the rejection of the candidacy of Maurice Kamto at the October 12, 2025 presidential election, MRC that supported the candidature, informs the political opinion that the contributions for the campaign of the said election, are closed”, the Interim National Treasurer announced in the communiqué in French.

The Interim National Treasurer said despite expenditures that had already been engaged in line with preparations for the electoral campaign, “the candidate informs (the public) that he will proceed with the reimbursement of the contributions received. Practical measures are being taken, in this direction”.

Campaign Budget Was Over 6 Billion FCFA

It should be recalled that when the then MRC leader, Maurice Kamto, officially launched the fund raising campaign at a press conference in Yaounde on January 30, 2025, he disclosed that the budget that had been adopted for the 2025 presidential election campaign was a little over 6 billion FCFA. It is not known how much money had been received as contributions to the campaign funds, as by the time MRC announced an end to the fund raising operation on August 6, following the rejection of Maurice Kamto’s candidacy for the October 12 presidential election.

It should be noted that following the rejection of Maurice Kamto’s candidacy by the Constitutional Council on August 5, an increasing number of persons, most of who were seemingly of the CPDM, started raising questions on the social media as to what would happen to the funds that MRC raised from members of the public, for Kamto’s presidential election campaign. The leader of a so called civil society group, on August 6, 2025, even issued a communiqué in which  he called on the Government to order the banks as  well as Orange Money and MTN MOMO, keeping the  campaign funds, to pay all the money into the State Treasury,

MRC Leadership Calls For Calm

Meanwhile in a communiqué that was signed by the Interim National President of MRC, Mamadou Mota, on August 5, 2025, a few hours after the Constitutional Council rejected the candidacy of Prof Maurice Kamto for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, the party said it was with much regret that they learnt about the rejection of Kamto’s candidacy by the Constitutional Council. He said the party had taken note of the Constitutional Council’s decision, which he said has negative effects on the country’s democratic process. He stressed that the resolve of the MRC which Is to see the country prosper, remains unchanged.

The Interim National President of MRC called on all militants and sympathizers, as well as all Cameroonians, to remain calm and serene. “You are the future of this country, and it will be constructed with you and in peace”. It is was interesting to see the emphasis that the Interim National President of MRC, Mamadou Mota, laid on the importance of peace, even if it was a sharp contrast to what the party had been saying all along. In his concluding paragraph which was partly written in capital letters for purpose of emphasis, the Interim National President of MRC said: “Le MRC a pour boussole, LE CHANGEMENT DANS LA PAIX ET PAR LES URNES, et rien, ni personne ne nous fera devrier de cette vision”, that is, “The MRC has as compass (guiding principle), PEACEFUL CHANGE AND BY THE BALLOT BOX, and nothing, nobody, will deviate us from this vision”.

Police Intervene To Stop Member Of Bass From Storming Cameroon Embassy In Brussels

Apparently the MRC leadership wanted to distance the party from the violence that erupted in Brussels, Belgium, shortly after the Constitutional Council in Cameroon announced the rejection of Maurice Kamto’s candidacy. A group of Cameroonians who are members of the ‘Brigade Anti Sardinard’, BAS, which is anti – Biya regime, rapidly mobilized to storm the Cameroon Embassy and cause destruction as they were heard shouting in video.

But unlike in the past, the Belgian police, with dogs, this time around swiftly intervened, and stopped the BAS members from attacking the Cameroon Embassy.  The police made a number of arrests.  A few hours later some of the persons that were arrested were released, while some, especially persons who were not in possession of valid documents to be living in Belgium, were put in detention, and are reportedly still in detention as by today, Friday, August 8. A list of 51 names has been circulating on the social media, alleged to be the names of members of BAS in detention in Brussels, Belgium.  An allegation has also been floating that the Belgian authorities are threatening to repatriate those without valid documents, back to Cameroon. That allegation has not been confirmed, but it should be a veritable nightmare to family members and friends back in Cameroon, as one can only imagine what might happen to members of BAS if they are repatriated.  The Cameroon Government calls BAS a terrorist group.

Consequences Of The Boycott Of The 2020 Twin Elections

Meanwhile, it should be noted that the pretext which the Constitutional Council used to reject the candidacy of Prof Maurice Kamto for the October 12, 225 presidential election, was that investiture was given to two candidates by the MANIDEM Party for the election. The candidates were Maurice Kamto and Dieudonne Yebga. Both candidacies were rejected. The issue had to do with an old leadership conflict in MANIDEM.  It should as well be noted that the Constitutional Council in taking the decision to reject the candidacies of Maurice Kamto and Dieudonne Yebga, confirmed an earlier decision that was taken on the matter by the Electoral Board of ELECAM. That was precisely on July 26, 2025. The Electoral Board of ELECAM rejected the candidacies of Maurice Kamto and Dieudonne Yebga, due to what the institution said was,  the, “Multiple letters  of nomination by the MANIDEM”.

It would be recalled that the National President of  MRC, Maurice Kamto, who was his party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election, was forced to temporary ‘resign’ from  MRC and join MANIDEM, in a bid to be able to get the investiture  from the party, to be a candidate at the  presidential election. This was part of the consequences of the rather controversial decision which the MRC leader, Maurice Kamto, took for the party to boycott the February 9, 2020 legislative and municipal elections. The boycott left the MRC absent in both the parliament and municipal councils. In line with the Electoral Code, MRC could not thus give investiture to a candidate (Kamto) for the 2025 presidential election, despite the sterile debate that the party officials created on Imperative and Representative Mandate.

Kamto Reacts To The Rejection Of His Candidacy

Meanwhile Prof Maurice Kamto has finally reacted to the rejection of his candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, by the Constitutional Council. The reaction was contained in a video message that was carried by Equinoxe Tv, in the evening of Thursday, August 7, 2025.

In the video message, Prof Kamto said the decision to reject his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, was taken long ago by the regime and that all the talk about two candidates given investiture by the MANIDEM Party, was just a pretext that the regime created to have his candidacy rejected. Kamto said Dieudonne Yebga, as well as all the documents that were presented at the Constitutional Council to try to justify the rejection of his candidacy, were fabricated by the regime.  Kamto assured the population that despite what has happened to him, he is still standing, and will never betray the Cameroonian people in the fight for change.

False Declarations

But Kamto played a lot of politics in his declarations. He for example claimed that it was the regime, and not MRC, that imposed the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates.  That was of course not true.  Kamto also tried to justify the controversial decision he took in late 2019 that MRC should boycott the February 9, 2020 legislative and municipal elections. He said the regime set up a trap which would have let to the destruction of MRC, if the party had taken part in the twin elections. He said it was because MRC wisely boycotted the election, that the regime out of frustration for having failed to cause the destruction of the party became so hostile against the party. But it would be recalled that Kamto several times claimed that the decision that was taken for MRC to boycott the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, was due to the Anglophone Crisis and the Electoral Code.