With five months to go to the presidential election in Cameroon, the political class and Elecam, the institution responsible for organising the ballot, are hard at work. As in 2018, political parties and independent political leaders are preparing the ground in a geopolitical context where external tensions are having an impact on the country’s economic situation, particularly for young people. This is particularly true of the ruling CPDM party, where activists have already announced their support for their candidate, the APC coalition led by opponent Maurice Kamto, Cabral Libii’s PCRN and Joshua Osih’s SDF.
In the last quarter of 2025, Cameroonians will be called to the polls to decide who will preside over the country’s destiny for the next seven years. With just a few months to go, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), the body responsible for preparing the ballot, political parties and independent political leaders are gearing up for this pivotal moment in the year. To guarantee the transparency of the vote, in April 2025 the institution acquired 1,000 new biometric kits to modernise the voter registration process, bringing the total number of registered voters to 755,085 by the end of 2024. According to the Electoral Code, the electoral body must be convened between 8 June 2025 and 18 July 2025. This period is crucial for validating candidacies and ensuring that they comply with legal requirements.
“On the Elecam side, we hope that everything is being done to ensure that this election takes place under good conditions. But on the side of the opposition, we feel that this is a risky election and could lead to a political crisis like in 2018.”
Valaire Bougue, Journalist – Cameroon
However, despite these efforts to make the electoral process more reliable, there is a shadow over the horizon. On 9 May, Elecam and the UN signed a collaboration agreement to ‘optimise elections in Cameroon, with a view to strengthening the transparency and inclusiveness of the electoral process’. The signing was condemned by the opposition party Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC), which denounced the sidelining of the opposition in this process.
« This approach by Elecam does not guarantee an election that could be inclusive, transparent and credible. The same is true of the Espoir Matomba seat. The candidate of the People United for Social Renovation, the PUS, believes that it is almost a form of tutelage because to see a country like Cameroon, 65 years after independence, still signing agreements with international agencies for an internal election, is a form of paternalism. »
Valaire Bougue, Journalist – Cameroon
Several candidates have already declared their interest in the race for the supreme magistracy, including Cabral Libii of the PCRN, Akere Muna of the Univers party, Joshua Osih of the SDF and Maurice Kamto of the Alliance politique pour le changement (APC) coalition, which brings together several political parties and civil society associations.
