After a long wait, we have finally entered the election period. With the convocation of the electorate, the elections have been scheduled for October 12, 2025.
This decisive phase in the electoral process ends registration on electoral rolls and paves the way for the actual election preparations. The deadline for both candidates and political parties to submit their candidacy dossiers to the General Directorate of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) and its branches has now passed. On Saturday, July 26, 2025, the Electoral Council published the list of candidacies: out of 83 submitted dossiers received by ELECAM, only 13 were accepted. This recent publication is generating tension in public opinion.
The source of this tense atmosphere is clear: the rejection of the candidacies from MANIDEM (Professor Maurice Kamto) and that of Léon Theiler Onana (Municipal Councilor for the RDPC in the Commune of Monatélé).
While the Electoral Council provided reasons for rejecting Professor Maurice Kamto’s candidacy, no such explanations were given regarding Léon Theiler Onana.
1. Professor Maurice Kamto’s case (MANIDEM)
The Council cited double investiture, based on Article 125, paragraph 1 of the electoral code, which states that the Electoral Council may accept or declare a candidacy inadmissible. This situation resulted from the submission of a second candidacy by Mr. Yebga Dieudonné, regarded as a candidate of MANIDEM.
Double candidacy—which is not explicitly addressed in the electoral code—implies that two candidacies were issued by the same competent authority.
Electoral Code, in Articles 120, 121 and 122 of Chapter III “Declaration of Candidacy”, requires among the dossier documents a presentation letter of investiture from the party sponsoring the candidate’s nomination.
Overall, the conditions for investiture vary from one party to another. For the Mouvement Africain pour la Nouvelle Indépendance et la Démocratie (MANIDEM), the party statutes specify that only the President has the authority to grant investiture.
The MINATD, as a key player in the electoral process overseeing political parties, centralizes updates on matters concerning party life in Cameroon.
Indeed, a June 2018 MINATD decision recognizes Anicet Ekane as the current President of MANIDEM and therefore the only body competent to invest a candidate.
This is particularly relevant given that President Ekane Anicet had signed the investiture letter for MANIDEM’s sole candidate in the 2020 municipal elections in the Commune of Dibombari.
Accordingly, we believe the Electoral Council should have relied on this established fact to resolve the issue.
Thus, the rejection of Professor Maurice Kamto’s candidature—MANIDEM’s nominee—appears legally weak, all the more so as the Council should have referred to the recognized authority of Ekane Anicet, the only person empowered to issue the investiture letter, to validate Kamto’s candidacy, who in all other respects meets the statutory legal requirements.
2. Léon Theiler Onana’s case (RDPC)
Onana, the RDPC’s second candidate, seems to run counter to Article 27, paragraph 4‑2 of the Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC) statutes, which stipulates that the Party’s National President is its presidential candidate. Onana’s dossier would lack the requisite letter of investiture under his party’s statutory provisions.
His approach amounts to denying the party’s competent bodies—namely the Central Committee and the Political Bureau—the authority to invest the current RDPC candidate, Paul Biya. Without a judicial decision in his favor, the Electoral Council had no alternative but to reject his candidature.
3. What happens next?
In both cases, the competent authority for electoral pre‑litigation must determine the legal outcome in the coming days.
Here we break down the law in simple terms so everyone can understand it and engage in meaningful discussions with others.
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