In the desperate hope of saving itself from a political fate now sealed by a disastrous record of more than four decades of rule, the ruling power has decided to engage in provocation, rebellion against the law and state insurrection against the Cameroonian people.
From one conference to the next, the Minister of Territorial Administration is multiplying provocations and insults in foul language and is usurping with impunity the powers of other institutions of the Republic, be they the Police, ELECAM or the Constitutional Council.
The CRM and its National President, who are, as you know, the main targets of this state violence unfolding before our eyes, have already taken legal action against these acts of sabotage of the rule of law and obsessive targeting of a citizen, without any action to date.
Indeed, several months ago we lodged a complaint against MINAT with the Public Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of the Administrative Centre. This complaint has not been followed up. Need we remind you that members of the government are liable to prosecution, under the conditions laid down by law, and that the Public Prosecutor cannot take it upon himself to dispense justice in the place of a court, by whimsically dismissing a complaint against a citizen that is well-founded in fact and law?
Taking advantage of the impunity granted to him by both the political and judicial powers, the Minister of Territorial Administration has appropriated the powers of ELECAM and the Constitutional Council and has taken it upon himself to discriminate and then publicly announce who will or will not be a candidate in the forthcoming presidential election.
It is in this context of organized rebellion against the Constitution and the laws that, bearing the word of the CPDM and the government, the Minister in question dared to announce to Cameroonians that Mr. Maurice KAMTO would not be able to take part in the forthcoming presidential election. Repeating, without obviously understanding its exact meaning and scope, the maxim ‘No one can take advantage of his own turpitude’ well known to jurists, he brandished the non-participation of the CRM in the double legislative and municipal elections of 09 February 2020 to support his sentence.
MINAT’s unappealable ‘decision’ is nothing more than the official position of the CPDM, which wants to arrogate to itself the right to choose who will face its candidate in the forthcoming presidential election. This is evidenced by the surprising statement issued on 14 January 2025 by the Secretary General of the party’s Central Committee, Mr. Jean KUETE.
MINAT’s out-of-the-blue decision, based on obvious legal shortcomings, is a clear indication of the CPDM regime’s evil plan against democracy and our people.
In the face of the complicit indolence of the judiciary, which is inventing legal incompetence in order to allow those who are in rebellion against the Constitution and laws of our country to proceed, and who are implementing a state insurrection against the Cameroonian people, I would like to be very clear: the CRM will not allow the CPDM to exclude its candidate from the next presidential election. Those who have taken this illegal decision and the small hands responsible for its implementation must renounce it without delay, because it will not be done without serious consequences. If by some misfortune they were tempted to manipulate the authorities competent to receive or validate candidatures for the forthcoming presidential election, they should remember that Cameroon has a constitution and laws that apply to everyone, including the CPDM and its henchmen.
The newspaper LE QUOTIDIEN, which, along with others, blithely violates the law, insults, defames, spreads false news with impunity and disseminates hatred against the CRM and its National President on behalf of a desperate regime, ran the following headline on the front page of its current issue dated Monday 17 March 2025: ‘Presidential election 2025: The jeremiads of a DISQUALIFIED candidate’. This sententious headline is illustrated by a portrait of the National President of the CRM. It is therefore the disqualification of Maurice Kamto, the party’s National President, that this orderly newspaper is talking about.
The extremists in power are clearly and publicly revealing that ELECAM and the Constitutional Council are going to reject the candidacy of Mr. Maurice KAMTO, despite the clear provisions of the relevant laws (together the Constitution (art. 15 paragraphs 2 and 3) and the electoral law (art. 121)).
In the face of this political, judicial and media plot that has already begun, I solemnly and seriously invite the people of Change and Alternance, the militants and sympathizers of the CRM, the sympathizers of the PAC and all democrats in our country to be ready to respond, when the time comes, in an appropriate manner to foil what can only be described as a “political and legal forfeiture”.
Signed in Yaoundé on 19 March 2025
Maurice KAMTO, National President of the CRM,
Candidate of the CRM and the PAC in the forthcoming presidential election.
