Why Presidential Election In The Past Was A Profitable Business To Opportunists In Politics

Reason why there used to be so many candidates at presidential elections

Before the 2012 reform of the Cameroon Electoral Code, any Tom and Dick in Cameroon politics could be a candidate in the presidential election. All that one needed to do was to create a political party, on whose ticket to run in the presidential election. It did not matter whether the party was represented in the National Assembly or in a municipal council, it did not even matter whether the party had ever participated in a municipal or legislative elections, or whether the party had ever been launched at all.

The presidential election was a profitable business for all those so called party leaders that were opportunists in politics. The caution fee for a candidate at the presidential election was 5 million francs CFA, while the campaign fund allocated by the State for each candidate was 15 million francs CFA. So the leader of a one –man- party could just borrow 5 million franc CFA and pay as caution fee, and when campaign officially kicks off he receives his campaign fund from the State, reimburse the loan of 5 million franc CFA he took, and has 10 million franc CFA in his pocket. What a good business!

Of course such candidates never used to do anything serious during campaigns because they tried to make sure that they did not spend much, so as to end up with at least 5 or 6 million francs CFA from the campaign funds allocated by the State, in their pockets. During the 2011 presidential election campaign period, all that one of the so called presidential candidates in Douala did, was that he printed some flyers, travelled to the toll gate at Edea where he spent  some two hours distributing to passengers, and ‘chatting’ with some passengers, and then returned to Douala. After the election, he bought a car.

So Many Candidates At Presidential Elections

The very loose conditions to participate in a presidential election in Cameroon, and especially the fact that participation in the election was considered a good business by opportunists, accounted for the very high number of candidates that used to participate in presidential elections in Cameroon, before the 2012 reform of the Electoral Code. There were for example 16 candidates at the 2004 presidential election, and as many as 23 candidates at the 2011 presidential election.

But imagine that at the 2004 presidential election, only 4 of the 16 candidates, had over 1 % of the votes. These were Paul Biya, Ni John Fru Ndi, Adamou Ndam Njoya and Garga Haman Adji. The 12 other candidates had less one than 1 % of the votes. The last three among the 12 were Hubert Kamgang with 7,509 votes (0.19%). George Nyamdi Dobgima with 6,730 votes (0.17 %), and Gustave Essaka with 4,996 votes (0.13 %).

Also, at the 2011 presidential elections, only 5 out of the 23 presidential candidates scored over 1 % of the votes. They were Paul Biya, Ni John Fru Ndi, Garga Haman Adji, Adamou Ndam Njoya and Ayah Paul Abine. The other 18 candidates each had less than 1 % of the vote, with the last three being George Nyamdi Dodgima with 5,122 votes (0.122 %), Tabi Owono with 5, 795 votes (0.119 %).  And Soh Fone with 5,074 votes (0.104 %).

After The 2012 Reform Of The Electoral Code

The 2012 reform of the Electoral Code tightened up things a bit, yes, just a bit, for a Cameroonian to qualify to be a candidate in the presidential election. One of the major conditions is that for a party to qualify or to be authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the presidential election, the party must be represented either in the National Assembly, the Senate or in a municipal council. This means that with just one councilor (not even one municipal council), a party is authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the presidential election. Yet, over 90 % of the closed to 400 political parties in Cameroon today, are not qualified to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

The alternative provided in the Electoral Law is for a aspirant to be an independent candidate in the presidential election. But just that the main condition which is to obtain 300 signatures  of some personalities to be an independent candidate, looks almost impossible for a real opposition candidate, as many of the personalities like MPs, First Class Chiefs among others are known to be members of the ruling CPDM. For example, at the last legislative elections which held on February 9, 2020, the ruling CPDM grabbed as many as 152 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly. This simply means that it will practically be impossible for anybody who wants to be an independent presidential candidate, to be able to get the signatures of many MPs, since a large majority of them are of the ruling CPDM. No CPDM MP will want to be identified as having signed for somebody to be an independent candidate at the presidential election, against the party’s natural candidate.

Even to get the signatures of the opposition MPs is also difficult, because those MPs belong to political parties that either have their candidates for the presidential election, or their parties some support other candidates.  It should be noted that there has so far been no independent candidate in a presidential election in Cameroon. As for the 2025 presidential election, there are a few persons that are said to be hunting for the 300 signatures to be independent candidates at the election. Well, let’s wait and see what will happen at the end of the day.

Caution Fee raised To 30 Million FCFA / Election No Longer A Profitable Business    

Meanwhile, besides the above mentioned restriction brought by the 2012 Electoral Reform, that a party authorized to give investiture to a candidate must either be represented in the National Assembly, the Senate or in a municipal council, the other condition that was instituted by the 2012 reform of the Electoral Code is that a candidate for the presidential election must pay a caution of 30 million francs CFA. The decision to raise the caution CFA to 30 million francs CFA clearly puts an end to the presidential election in Cameroon being a profitable business to opportunists.

As could be seen, all those that for years had become ‘professional candidates’ at presidential elections in Cameroon like George Nyamdi Dodgima, Jean Jacques Ekindi, Anicet Ekani, Fritz Pierre Ngo, Victorin Hameni Bieleu among others, did not declare their candidatures for the 2018 presidential election, because the 2012 reform of the Electoral Code had one way or the other put ‘sand in their garri’.  It is certain that some other ‘professional candidates’ for presidential elections in Cameroon like Gustave Essaka that unfortunately passed away, would also not have been candidates at the 2018 presidential election, if they were alive.

As was seen in the first presidential election that followed the minimum restriction placed by the 2012 reform of the Electoral Code, the number of candidates at the 2018 presidential election dropped to 9, whereas there were 23 candidates in the 2011 presidential election.  In actual fact there were 8 candidates at the 2018 presidential election, as Akere Tabeng Muna who was one of the candidates, withdrew a few days to the election day proper, in favour of Maurice Kamto.

Meanwhile out of the 8 candidates that effectively participated in the 2018 presidential election, 2 each scored less than 1 % of the votes. They were Ndifor Frankine Afanwi aka Prophet Frank (now of blessed memory) with 23,687 votes (0.67%), and Matomba Serrge Espoir with 12,262 votes (0.35 %).