Latest news with #CameroonElection
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
A second ally of Cameroon's Biya enters presidential race
YAOUNDE, June 30 (Reuters) - Cameroon's Tourism Minister Bello Bouba Maigari has accepted his party's nomination to seek the presidency in an expected October election, with long-serving President Paul Biya yet to announce whether he plans to run for reelection. A former prime minister, Maigari, 78, has been a staunch ally of President Biya for more than 30 years. He accepted the National Union for Democracy and Progress' nomination on Saturday, though he did not resign from his cabinet post. He is the second government minister from northern Cameroon to announce a presidential bid in recent days, signalling a potential fracture of the strategic alliance between Biya's central government and influential northern elites. In power since 1982, Biya is the world's oldest serving head of state at 92. He has not confirmed whether he plans to run for reelection. Maigari's announcement was preceded last week by the resignation from the government of fellow northerner Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a former government spokesperson, who announced his candidacy, citing widespread calls for change. Northern Cameroon's three provinces of Adamawa, North and Far North, with over 2 million voters, hold significant electoral sway. More than 8 million Cameroonians have registered to vote, according to provisional data from the election commission in the cocoa- and oil-producing Central African nation of about 30 million.
BBC News
09-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Maurice Kamto: Police surround home of opposition firebrand in Cameroon
Cameroon's main opposition leader Maurice Kamto says police have surrounded his home for the past two days since he returned from France, where he had held a political rally that inflamed the ruling CPDM Sunday law enforcement officers blocked the 71-year-old from leaving his lodgings in the main city of Douala for a meeting with members of his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) later called off plans to hold the meeting on Monday because of the strong police plans to contest Cameroon's presidential election later this year, hoping to end 92-year-old Paul Biya's four-decade grip on power. Biya has not yet declared whether he will stand for re-election. Kamto spent nine months in detention after contesting the 2018 poll, when the authorities accused the former law professor of insurrection following protests by his supporters who claimed that the poll had been rigged in favour of Biya. The government denied the in Paris last month, Kamto promised to protect Biya and his family if he wins October's election. "When you do me the great of honour of entrusting me with the reins, you can be sure that nothing will happen to Mr Biya and his family. Nothing. I guarantee it, I have no time for hatred. I [only] have time to build Cameroon with you," he told thousands of Cameroonians living in the diaspora who had turned up to his rally on 31 did not go down well with ruling party officials, with one calling his comments "pathetic"."What protection do they need? Which family are we talking about?," asked Labour Minister Grégoire Owona in a Facebook post, adding, "Cameroon is not in danger."Following Kamto's return, security has been tightened in parts of officers on the ground told the BBC on Monday that they had been instructed to watch the neighbourhood where Kamto was staying, and the media was not allowed to film. Footage filmed in the city on Sunday evening showed Kamto telling supporters "as I speak, I'm still sequestered". "Go home in calm and dignity," he told chanting supporters who had gathered at the and gendarme officers had also restricted access to the CRM party building that Kamto was trying to reach, saying the meeting was not Kamto denies this, saying local authorities and law enforcement officials were informed that he was coming to the city for a the election approaches, rights groups have condemned the government's crackdown on dissent in the Central African elections that were also supposed to take place earlier this year have been delayed until 2026. Biya has been in power for 42 years and is one of the world's oldest heads of state. Last year the country banned reports on the president's health, following rumours that he had died. Kamto's eligibility to run for the presidency is in question, because Cameroonian law demands that any political party must already have elected representatives in place if its leader wishes to run for the last presidential election Kamto's CRM party had one senator, but going into this election it has no elected Kamto could run as an independent candidate, for which he would need 300 signatures from designated personalities from across the Kamto insists there is "no legal obstacle" stopping his bid for the presidency, and CRM representative Guy Tassé told the AFP news agency that there was "a political manoeuvre by the regime to try to block the candidate they fear because he embodies real change".The country is also in the throes of a separatist insurgency - with rebels demanding independence for Cameroon's two English-speaking provinces, which are home to 20% of the the near-decade since the conflict began, at least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. You may also be interested in: 'Nowhere is safe' - Cameroonians trapped between separatists and soldiersArt curator Koyo Kouoh dies at height of careerThe lawyer risking everything to defend LGBT rightsPaul Biya: Cameroon's 'absentee president' Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
