Over 25 Persons Have Already Declared Their Candidacies For The 2025 Presidential Election In Cameroon

 But these persons at this stage are NOT presidential candidates, as only ELECAM will publish the official list of real candidates when the time comes

Those That Have Declared Their Candidacies As Independents, Are Comprised Of Both Serious And Fake Guys

(INSIDE – LIST OF 27 PERSONS THAT HAVE DECLARED THEIR CANDIDACIES FOR THE 2025 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN CAMEROON).

Over 25 persons have so far declared their candidacies for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon, expected to hold in the month of October. It should however be made clear that the declaration of candidacy DOES NOT automatically qualify one as a presidential candidate. In fact at this stage, there is not yet a presidential candidate for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon. Even those personalities that have been designate for the presidential election by their political parties are not yet, the presidential candidates for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon.

Files Of Candidacies 

When the President of the Republic will most probably in June convene Cameroonians to the polls for the October presidential election, all those that want to run for the election, will  submit the files  of their candidacies to the elections organizing body in Cameroon, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) for examination. At the end, ELECAM will publish the list of persons whose candidacies for the 2025 presidential election, have been validated. Those are the real candidates for the presidential election.

It should be noted that one of the important documents to be contained in the file of a candidacy, has to either be a letter of investiture for the candidate of a political party, or a total of 300 signatures obtained from some personalities in the country, 30 per region, as stated the Law, for those who want to run as independents. There is also the caution fee of 30 million FCFA (Thirty million francs CFA), that each candidate has to pay into the State Treasury. This is one of the principal factors, that has from 2018, been keeping adventurers away from the presidential election.

 Candidates That Are Given Investitures By Parties  

As aforementioned, there are officially two categories of presidential candidates in Cameroon. The first category is that of candidates that are given investitures by political parties, which are authorized according to the Electoral Law, to do so. These are parties that are either represented in the National Assembly, the Senate, or the Municipal Councils.   For the 2025 presidential election, there are a total of 18 political parties that officially qualify to give investiture to a presidential candidate.

It should also be noted that a majority of the 18 parties, that qualify to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, have so far not yet designated or made public, their candidates for the election. Also, MRC of Prof Maurice Kamto, which boycotted the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, is not, among the 18 parties, since the party has no MP, no councilor or Senator. This is the real situation, though Kamto and his men continue to insist that he will run as MRC candidate at the 2025 presidential election. Let’s wait and see.

Also, it is very likely that parties like Bello Bouba Maigari’s UNDP, Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC, Late Dakole Diassala’s MDR, Hamadou Moustapha’s ANDP, and Robert Bapooh Lipot’s faction of the UPC, will not put up candidates for the 2025 presidential election, as they support the candidacy of incumbent President Paul Biya. This means that out of the 18 political parties that are qualified to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, less than 15 political parties will end up doing so. So far we have seen only the declarations of the candidacies of 7 of the political parties. The 7 parties include CDU, SDF, PCRN, PURS, UNIVERS, MP, and PAL. Even the case of PCRN and MP are not certain, because of the fight over the leadership of the parties. Thus as regard the candidates designated by political parties that qualify to give investiture, only the candidacies of Joshua Nambangi Osih of SDF, Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya of CDU, Celestin Bedzigui of PAL, Serge Espoir Matomba of PURS, and Akere Muna who wants to run on the ticket of Parti UNIVERS, appear not to have any problem.

  Independent Candidates

The second category of presidential candidates in Cameroon, are independent candidates. To qualify as an independent candidate, the Electoral Law demands that the aspirant should collect a total of 300 signatures, 30 per region, of some personalities like MPs, First and Second Class traditional rulers, among others. Each signature has to be certified by the DO of the locality. It should be noted that there has so far never been an independent presidential candidate in Cameroon.

One major problem that people face is that most of the personalities that are supposed to provide their signatures, including the category traditional rulers, are militants of the ruling CPDM, and are scared to give their signatures for fear of victimization. As aforementioned, each signature has to be certified by the DO of the locality, meaning that when a chief in an area provides his signature to somebody, the DO soon knows about it. And most of these DOs are attached to the ruling CPDM for promotion, even though they are supposed to be neutral as civil administrators.

Meanwhile it should be noted that a bulk of the persons that have so far declared their candidacies for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon, declared themselves as independent candidates. This is the first time, since the rebirth of multiparty politics, in Cameroon, that some Cameroonians have come out to declare their candidacies for the presidential election, as independents. More so, there are just so many of them. But the fact is that most of those Cameroonians that have declared their candidacies for the 2025 as independents are jokers in the park. They are fellows that are not serious in the declarations they made, that they want to be candidates in the 225 presidential candidates. These unscrupulous fellows declared their candidacies, to seek for cheap popularity. They are fakes.

However, there are few amongst those Cameroonians who have declared their candidacies to run as independent, in, the2025 presidential election, that are serious guys,. They are gentlemen. They are out in the field, moving from pat of the country to the other, in search of the 300 hundred signatures. These are serious persons. There are some that are said to have succeeded, to get quite a number of signatures. Some of the numbers of signatures already obtained are quite encouraging. But whether they will succeed in the end, remains to be seen. Perhaps Cameroonians will this year see the first independent candidates in the presidential election. But it must be said that those aspirants are having it very difficult in the field. The difficulties they  face is not only  about having to convince the personalities that have the signatures to give them, but they also do  face enormous problems to have the DOs certified the signatures.

BELOW IS THE LIST OF 27 PEROSNS THAT HAVE SO FAR DELCLARED THEIR CANDIDACIES FOR THE 2025 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.  IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE LIST IS NOT COMPLETE, BECAUSE IT IS DIFFICULT TO GET TO KNOW ALL THE NAMES OF THOSE THAT HAVE DECLARED THEIR CANDIDACIES, ESPECIALLY AS SOME OF THE SO CALLED INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES THAT ARE JOKERS. JUST GET UP IN BARS OR RESTAURANTS IN ONE REMOTE AREA, AND DECLARE THEIR CANDIDACIES, AND SART REIGNING IN THE QUARTERS.  AFTER ALL, IT DOES NOT COST THEM ANY THING:

–     Mayor HERMINE PATRICIA TOMAINO Epse NDAM NJOYA (CDU)

• Hon JOSHUA NAMBANGI OSH  (SDF)
• Hon CABRAL LIBII NGUE  (PCRN)
• Prof MAURICE KAMTO      (MRC)
• Councilor SERGE ESPOIR MATOMBA    (PURS)
• HILAIRE DZIPAN (‘MOUVEMENT PROGRESSISTES)
• Barrister MUNA AKERE TABENG (UNIVERS)
• Mayor CELESTIN BEDZIGUI   (PAL)
• VALARE BERTRAND BESSALA (JUVENCES)
• JEAN DJEUGA (FUC)
• CHRISTIAN NTUMBANE MBONO
• JEAN BAHEBECK (UPC)
• DOMINIQUE YAMB NTIMBA (UPC)
• JEAN BLAISE GWET
• Barrister ASHU EMMANUEL AGBOR (REFORM PARTY)
• ABOUKARY SIDIKI
• Mayor BIYONG JOSEPH ESPOIR  VYBE –MOOD (former PCRN)
• BIJOU ONGMAKAGNE
• ASONG MICHAEL KHUMBAH
•   AMBE VALENTINE (Man – of – God)
• ERIC ESSOMO NTSIMI
• JEAN MARIE EYEBE
• JEAN MARIE DIBAMOU
• JIMMY JAB
• NDIM JACOB NGONG
• DIN DIN FERDINAND
• SUCCESS NKONGHO