Statement on the appointment of a member of the central committee of the CPDM to the constitutional council.

STATEMENT ON THE APPOINTMENT OF A MEMBER OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPDM TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL.

The appointment, on Tuesday 8 April 2025, of Mrs Monique OULI NDONGO, CPDM militant – former CPDM Senator from 2013 to 2018, and member of the Central Committee of the CPDM since 2011- to the Constitutional Council is a further act of defiance against the democracy of the outgoing President of the Republic on the eve of the presidential election next October.

This appointment, which comes at a time when the Constitutional Council has just distinguished itself by a shocking decision of incompetence on an essential issue, such as the application of article 80 of the Electoral Code on the publication of the national electoral roll, bodes ill for the forthcoming presidential election; all the more so as the President of the Constitutional Council himself is being prosecuted for having taken part in a partisan meeting during which the participants called on the outgoing President to stand as a candidate.

The incumbent President of the Republic, who is at the same time National Chairman of the CPDM, in violation of Article 7(4) of the Constitution, and who is his party’s candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, seems to be sending a clear message to Cameroonians that they will have to rely only on themselves, their vigilance and their determination if they hope that the outcome of the ballot will actually reflect their choice and therefore their will. This appointment reinforces the one-party nature of the Constitutional Council and suggests that the groundwork is being laid for another electoral hold-up.

Such manifestly illegal manoeuvres are clear signs of a lack of serenity, and even of panic.

I want to repeat this: the presidential election of 2025 will not be a repeat of that of 7 October 2018, which was declared to have been « won » by the CPDM candidate, at the end of a ballot in which the official rate of validly cast votes made public by the Constitutional Council was 100.48%.

The people of Cameroon must redouble their vigilance and prepare an appropriate response to what is being prepared before our very eyes.

Signed in Yaoundé on 9 April 2025

Maurice KAMTO, National President of the CRM,

candidate of the CRM and the PAC in the forthcoming presidential election.