(Part 2): Following Banning Order, MRC Held Its Extraordinary Convention Online, And Re-elected Prof MAURICE KAMTO As National President

But A ‘Founding Member’ Of The MRC, Dr OKALA EBODE, Insists That Since KAMTO  Resigned From The Party,  Moved To MANIDEM, Before Returning,  He  Must, In Line With MRC Constitution,  Spend 3 Years, Before Running  For Post Of Party President.  A Debate Has Also Sparked Off, On The Legality, Of The MRC Convention, Held Online, And Whether MINAT Will Recognize KAMTO’s Re-election. MAMADOU MOTA Takes On DIEUDOONNE ESSOMBA.

Prof Maurice Kamto, National President of MRC, officially resigned from his post and party on June 25, 2025, in a bid to run for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, on the ticket of another party, MANIDEM. This was because his party, MRC, boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections which held on February 9, 2000, and so is not currently represented in the National Assembly or a municipal council. Unfortunately also for Kamto and the MRC, the legislative and municipal elections that were supposed to hold in early 2025, were postponed to 2026. Not being represented in a municipal council or at the National Assembly, the MRC of Maurice Kamto could not thus meet up with conditions laid down in the current Electoral Code, for a party to qualify to give investiture to a candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election.

So Maurice Kamto had to temporary leave the MRC for the MANIDEM Party of Anice0t Ekane, in a bid to get investiture to be a candidate in the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Ekane effectively gave Kamto MANIDEM’s investiture to be the party’s candidate at the presidential election. Unfortunately a rancourous conflict between Anicet Ekane and a former President of M ANIDEM, Dieudonne Yebga, was exploited by the regime to push the Constitutional Council to reject the candidacy of Kamto for the October 12 presidential election. The pretext was that there were multiple of candidacies from MANIDEM for the October 12 presidential election.  Suffice to say that the Constitutional Council on August 5, 2025 rejected Maurice Kamto’s candidacy, for the October 12, 2025 presidential election.

Kamto Returns To MRC

According a correspondence that was addressed to the National President of MANIDEM, Ekane Anicet, by Prof Maurice Kamto, the latter formally left MANIDEM on September 11, 2025, and returned to MRC. But the official leader of the MRC remained the Acting President, Mamadou Mota.  Kamto, a renowned Law Professor, had to wait for a legal avenue to return to the post of National President of MRC, considering that he ‘resigned’ from the post in June, even if it was known that his departure to MANIDEM was just temporal.  To MRC officials, the election that was supposed to hold at the Extraordinary Convention of the party on November 29, 2025, was supposed to be an opening for Prof Maurice Kamto to legally and officially return to the post of National President of MRC.

Okala Ebode’s  Against Kamto’s Immediate Return To Post Of President of MRC

But, an argument put up by one of the ‘Founding members’ of MRC, Dr OKALA EBODE Joseph Thierry, against the immediate return of Prof Maurice Kamto  to the post of National President of the party,  has become a big embarrassment to senior officials of the MRC, who  are shying away from any public debate on the issue. Okala Ebode has been insisting that the MRC Constitution states that a new member of  the party, must militate for at least 3 years uninterrupted in the party, before running for  a top post in the party, like that of National President.

Okala Ebode recalls that Maurice Kamto resigned from the MRC in June last year, and returned to the party in September. He  argues that  the  return of Kamto’s to  the MRC last September, meant a new beginning as militant of  the party,  and that he has to militate in the party for at least three years, before being qualified to run for the post of National President of the party.

MRC Officials Evasive On The Debate

But as aforementioned, MRC officials in general have been shying away from the debate or argument sparked off by Okala Ebode, that, Prof Maurice Kamto returned to MRC last September as a new militant of the party, and thus must militate in the party for at least 3 years uninterrupted, before he can qualify to run for the post of National President of the party.  Instead, the MRC officials are insisting that Okala Ebode was dismissed from the party, and thus is no longer of the party, and so has no business with what happens inside the party, or with the party’s internal affairs.  To MRC officials thus, the issue of a new militant having to militate in the party for at least three years, before qualifying to run for the post of National President of the party, is an internal affair of the party.

 Extraordinary Convention Holds Online

Meanwhile, it would be recalled that the DO of Yaounde 4, Akondi Elvis Mbahangwen, on November 27, 2025, prohibited the holding of the Extraordinary Convention of MRC, which was scheduled for the party’s headquarters on November 29, 2025, under the pretext that it posed a threat to public peace and order. MRC surprised the CPDM regime, by deciding to hold the Extraordinary Convention online, on December 21, 2025. The main highlight of the Extraordinary Convention of MRC was the re-election of Prof Maurice Kamto, to the post of National President the party. It should be noted that the election was by a list system.

According to Mamaddou Mota, that maintained the post of 1^st Vice President of MRC on Kamto’s list, the list of Prof Maurice Kamto that was the lone list that was received to the Organizing Committee of the elections, registered an impressive score of 95 % in the election that held online.  Mamadou Mota who said that all delegates participated in the Convention, justified the holding of the Extraordinary Convention of the MRC online, by arguing that the party has to adapt to modernity. He said the modern method of holding some meetings by video conferences, and by different online options, has become imperative for the opposition in Cameroon, considering the hostile political environment in which they are operating. Opposition meetings planned to be held in the classic method, are most of the times banned by the CPDM regime, through the DOs.  He said the holding of their Extraordinary Convention online, which they found even much more convenient and cheap, is an indication that MRC will try to adapt its structures to contemporary realties.

Kamto’s List That Was Voted, At the Extraordinary Convention Of MRC

• NATIONAL PRESIDENT –   KAMTO MAURICE
• 1^ST VICE PRESIDENT –     MAMADOU YAKOUBA
• 2^ND VICE PRESIDENT –   NOAH TRIAN BELBINE NADEGE
• 3^RD VICE PRESIDENT –     SIMH EMMANUEL
• 4^TH VICE PRESIDENT –       KAIGAMA ISMAEL
• 5^TH VICE PRESIDENT –      AISSATOU SAADOU
• SECRETARY GENERAL –        NDONG CHRISTOPHER NVEH
• NATIONAL TREASURER –       OKO APPOLINAIRE

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 Debate Erupts / Why CPDM Regime Or MINAT Will Not Encourage Online Meetings

As expected, a debate or argument has erupted over the legality of the Extraordinary Convention of the MRC, which held online on December 21, 2025, as well as the re-election of Prof Maurice Kamto as President of MRC.  There is no question, that in this digital age, a political party can for convenience hold its meetings by video conference or online. Even these days, especially since the outbreak of COVID – 19 in 2020, some high level meetings involving heads of States or their collaborators, hold by video conference. This happens even in the backward CEMAC Sub-region.

But there is no doubt however that in Cameroon, the CPDM Regime, or better still, the Ministry of Territorial Administration commonly known by the French acronym, MINAT, will not support or encourage the idea of political parties holding  their meetings online. This is because it will deprive the regime of the undemocratic strategy that they have been using over the years, to stifle or even block the activities of opposition parties, by using DOs to ban their meetings, under the pretext that they pose a threat to public peace and order.

Why The Case Of MRC Is Complicated Even To The Party

Whatever the case,  MRC ‘s case is  complicated, considering that the party  leadership decided to hold  the Extraordinary Convention of the  party online, after the  DO of Yaounde IV banded the holding of the Convention at the party’s headquarters in Yaounde, on the pretext that  the event posed a threat to public order.  So many political observers fear that MINAT will likely not recognize the December 21 Extraordinary Convention of MRC.  Also, if it would have been just an ordinary party meeting, it would have been no problem for MRC, as to whether MINAT recognizes the meeting or not.

But the problem is that the meeting which MRC leadership and delegates held online on December 21, 2025, was an Elective Convention, and so MRC is supposed to update its file at MINAT, by sending the resolution of the Convention, or better still, the result of the election, to MINAT. And this is where there is the fear that MINAT, especially if Paul Atanga Nji was to stay on as Minister of Territorial Administration, is very likely not to recognize the MRC Convention that held online. The implication here is that in such a case, MINAT will not recognize the return of Prof Maurice Kamto to the post of National President of MRC.

There is also the other issue being raised by Okala Ebode, that according to the Constitution of MRC, Maurice Kamto can again only run for the office of National President of MRC, at least three years after his return to the party last September.

 Dr  Dieudonne Essomba’s View

Meanwhile, Vision TV Consultant, Dr Dieudonne Essomba,  gave his own point of view on this issue of the MRC Convention, during  the programme, ‘Club D’Elites’ , over Vision. 4.   Essomba in his analysis mostly focused on the point raised by Dr  Okala Ebode, that Prof Maurice Kamto is not supposed to return now to the post of National President of MRC. Essomba reminded MRC officials that the Constitution of their party is in their file at MINAT, just like those of other political parties. He explained that MINAT will definitely exploit Okala Ebode’s complaint, to reject the re-election of Maurice Kamto to the post of National President of MRC. This is considering the fact that the Constitution of MRC, states that any new militant must militate for at least three years uninterrupted in the party, before qualifying to run for the top post of National President of the party.

Essomba went on to caution the leadership of MRC, that if the party insists that Maurice Kamto was re-elected last December 21 as National President of MRC, and he goes on to sign the investitures of the party’s candidates at the legislative and municipal elections that are being expected, MINAT might cause the rejection of MRC lists. That MINAT will argue that Kamto is not the legal National President of MRC, and thus has no authority to sign the investitures of candidates. Essomba also cautioned MRC officials not to forget the fact that, “MINAT IS CPDM’.

Mamadou Mota Takes On Diedonne Esaomba, But Avoids The Real Issue   

But then in a swift reaction in an article posted on social media, the 1^st Vice President of MRC, Mamadou Mota, instead launched an attack on the person of Dieudonne Essomba, rather than address the real issue. The real issue is whether Okala Ebode’s argument is right or wrong. He argues that after Kamto returned to the MRC in September 2025, he, according to the party’s Constitution, will only be qualified to run for the post of National President, after at least three years.

Rather, Mamadou Mota raised doubts over whether Dieudonne Essomba is a real intellectual, and that he instead looks like one of the hungry fellows lobbying to receive crumbs from the Master’s table.  Mota questioned how somebody like Dieudonne Essomba, who claims to be an intellectual, or who passes for an intellectual, can  say that it is the administration, and not the sovereign people or militants of a party,, that have to decide who their leader is.  To be fair to Dieudoone Essomba, that is not what he said. The fact of the matter is that MRC officials are dodging from the real issue.