The number rose to over 70 after more than 30 aspirants deposited their candidacy files to elections management body, ELECAM yesterday. The end of the file submission window is expected to set the stage for the final phase of the exercise where ELECAM and the Constitutional Council will dictate the pace of affairs in determining the aspirants who will be on the starting block as candidates during the Sunday October 12 mega political showdown.
A record eighty-one aspirants have submitted candidacy files at Elections Cameroon, ELECAM in a bid to contest the forthcoming Presidential Election in Cameroon. The elections management body revealed the numbers early this morning at the end of the file submission window of the October exercise. Per data revealed by the institution, the number rose to 81 after some 50 aspirants submitted candidacy files for consideration and validation.
Speaking in separate interviews after depositing their files, all the aspirants promised to front the complete transformation of Cameroon if they are elected the President of Cameroon. The end of the window is expected to set the stage for the final phase of the exercise where ELECAM and the Constitutional Council will dictate the pace of affairs in determining the aspirants who will be on the starting block as candidates during the Sunday October 12 mega political showdown.
Record application files
At 81, the list of aspirants who have registered for the forthcoming election is the highest number of application files that have been recorded in the history of presidential elections in Cameroon or at least in recent times. Since Cameroon transitioned to multiparty politics in the 90s and organized its first multiparty Presidential Election in 1992, such a number has never been recorded in a presidential election. The only time the country came close to beating that record was in 2011.
Fifty-one Cameroonians submitted candidacy files to challenge incumbent Paul Biya for the 2011 election. Despite the relatively overblown number, only 23 of the application files were validated, placing the number of candidates at 23 before the candidate of the United Socialist Party, Daniel Soh later withdrew and backed incumbent Paul Biya of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, the CPDM party.
Pundits had blamed the high rate of application for the 2011 exercise on the political discontentment that was experienced in the political landscape in Cameroon at the time. The October 9, 2011 Presidential Election was the first presidential election that Cameroon was organizing after the cancellation of presidential term limit which formerly stood at two terms.
Facts and figures of 2025 applicants
The files submitted for the 2025 election include multiple files from independent candidates and several cases of double application files received under the banner of a single political party. In total, 25 independent candidates submitted candidacy files. Over 15 of the independent candidates submitted their application files yesterday including seven of them deposited at ELECAM regional offices in the North, Adamawa, Littoral and South regions.
Double applications under single party
Four cases of double files under the banner of a single political party were also recorded, opening the doors for the possible disqualification of one of the files in the four cases or in the worst-case scenario, the disqualification of both aspirants. The double files involve the ruling CPDM, UNIVERS, the Union of African Populations, UPC and the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy, MANIDEM.
The CPDM’s National President, Paul Biya was the first to submit files for the ruling political party when his file was deposited at ELECAM last Thursday July 17 by other bigwigs of the institution. Chaos however hit the party when, a day after the submission of Biya’s application, one of the councilors of the party, Onana Leon Theiller from the Centre Region, deposited his candidacy file under the same banner on Friday July 18.
In the last over six months, Onana Leon Theiller have challenged Biya’s status as the flagbearer of the CPDM in the forthcoming election, notably taking the 92-year-old who has served as Cameroon’s Head of State since 1982 to court. He has placed his argument on the party’s failure to organize a congress to officially elect the long-serving Head of State as the candidate of the CPDM. The last time a congress was organized to elect Biya as CPDM’s flagbearer in an election was in 2011 in the leadup to the 2011 Presidential Election. Biya entered the 2018 race under the banners of the CPDM without the CPDM holding a congress to select him as a flagbearer.
Kamto faces similar headache at MANIDEM
Prof Maurice Kamto who is tipped to be Biya’s biggest challenger in the forthcoming exercise, is facing a similar headache at the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party, MANIDEM. Kamto deposited his file at ELECAM last Friday July 18. Things however took a different twist when another aspirant, Yebga Dieudonne, dropped his candidacy file under the banner of the same party yesterday.
The submission of double files sets the tone for another episode of drama for Prof Kamto after seven years of twists and turns in the leadup to the forthcoming election. In the last over eight years, Prof Kamto had fronted political movements under the banner of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, the CRM party. He however announced last week that he had diverted to the MANIDEM party which is led by renowned Cameroonian politician, Anicet Ekane who contested the presidential elections in 2004 and 2011.
Kamto stated after announcing the switch that he had resigned from the CRM party last month to officially facilitate the switch which many believe was motivated by the challenges that the runner up of the 2018 Presidential Election had faced in his bid to enter the forthcoming contest under the CRM party.
UNIVERS, UPC dancing to same tunes
The Union of Cameroonian Populations, UPC and the UNIVERS party are dancing to the same tunes like the CPDM and MANIDEM. Barrister Akere Muna first submitted files as the flagbearer of the UNIVERS party on July 16, officially entering the ranks as the second aspirant to submit application documents.
Chaos however took over his show yesterday when another aspirant, Membouet Chantale Adelaide, dropped an application file under the banner of the same party. Yamb Ntimba Dimba Dominique submitted files early yesterday as the leader of the UPC party before renowned Cameroonian health specialist, Prof Bahebeck Jean entered the list under the colors of the same party just a few hours later on the day.
Class of heavyweights
Several political heavyweights have joined the 2025 race to the Unity Palace. Besides Paul Biya, Prof Kamto and Akere Muna, the likes of Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Bello Bouba Maigara of the National Union of Democracy and Progress, the NUDP and Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Cameroon National Salvation Front, the FSNC party, have also joined the ride. Other familiar names on the list include 2018 candidates, Cabral Libii of the Cameroonian Party of National Reconciliation, PCRN, Serge Espoir Matomba of the United People for Social Renovation, PURS and the leader of the Union of Socialist Movements, UMS, Pierre Kwemo.
