Maurice Kamto’s disqualification in the 2025 Cameroon election
Known to the Cameroonian public as a politician and leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) in opposition to the incumbent Cameroonian president Paul Biya. Paul Biya is presently 92 years old and has headed Cameroon since 1982, meaning that Biya could serve as president until the age of 100 as it is the case a presidential term is seven years long.
Post-independence Cameroon has only had one head of state prior to Biya’s regime, it is widely believed that the former French colonial rule has established its neo-colonial influence in Cameroon. Hence the bizarre nature of Biya’s dominance, additionally, it is the case that France is the most prominent investor in Cameroon’s industrial infrastructure, mining, financial affairs, telecommunication services and corporate investment.
This bi-lateral network imposed by the French government allows France to extract and mine all the agricultural and mineral resources with impunity. As a result of France’s foreign policy for West Africa and Biya’s acquiescence to these terms and conditions, the entire economic production in Cameroon is controlled by France. Thus bringing into question the macro-economic incongruencies that Biya’s regime are engaging in, henceforth the allegations of electoral fraud and dictatorial nature Biya’s presidency are being challenged. The primary challenger to Biya is Maurice Kamto who has also served in the Justice ministry and currently lecturing law. Kamto is not only Biya’s primary opponent, he is a holder of a Doctorate in Law (LLD) with humanitarian experience in international law at the United Nations.
In the past 2018 elections Kamto received the second most votes behind Biya, assuming the elections were free, fair and in conformity with principles of democratic elections, of which is highly unlikely. Since 2018, Kamto has been closely involved in attempting to de-stabilise the current tyranny in Cameroon, however, in August of 2025 Kamto was formally excluded from Cameroon’s upcoming elections on the 12th of October 2025. His exclusion from the electoral process is seen by the public as a deliberate attempt to silence and disenfranchise a potential competitor to Biya. An act that is illegal in Cameroon, international as it can be considered to be electoral fraud and gerrymandering which is a criminal offence as per the rule of law.
Gerrymandering can be defined as the act of manipulating electoral bodies in order to create an unfair advantage for a particular political party, usually enacted by a fellow politician trying to maximise as much of the governmental voter bloc as possible in order to influence the public opinion among the opposition’s voter base advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. Whereas election fraud is any judicially fraudulent and illegal act is done for purposes of influencing election results. In the case of Biya and his Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party, Biya is directly involved in influencing the decision making process of ELECAM. Multiple ELECAM constituents are members of Biya’s party, making it difficult to guarantee just elections given it is the case that ELECAM is a subsidiary of Biya’s government’s Ministry for Territorial Administration.
The Cameroon electoral commission “ELECAM” which is operated as an organ of Cameroon’s federal government officially rejected Kamto’s application for candidacy. However, ELECAM is suggesting that Maurice Kamto was disqualified due to a plurality of investors, alleging that Kamto’s CRM sponsors have sponsored more than one candidate. Thus, violating electoral policies against duplicate endorsements from the same party, leaving Kamto’s bid for candidacy rejected. Maurice is the Cameroonian champion for human rights transformation and social justice reformation, placing him as a political opponent to the incumbent president and beacon of hope for voters.
Kamto will struggle to finalise his quest for the executive seat without a political party supporting him, leaving it likely that Paul Biya will be victorious once again. Political transition as it relates to the state of democracy in Cameroon is projected to be undermined in the 2025 elections, though campaign plans from other parties and Maurice Kamto may give surprises.
