Cameroon President Paul Biya
A record 81 hopefuls, including seven women, have applied to run in the October 12, 2025 presidential election in Cameroon, the seat Paul Biya has held for the past 43 years.
The country’s elections management body, Elecam, closed the 10-day window for submitting presidential bids on Monday night.
The hopefuls include Prof Maurice Kamto, who came second in the last contest, and Cabral Libii and Joshua Osih, who have also competed in previous races.
Kamto and Libii have, however, changed political affiliation. Unable to secure his party’s nomination, having boycotted the 2020 local elections, Kamto joined the Movement for New Independence and Democracy (Manidem), while Libii is competing under Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN).
Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma Bakary, two other Biya allies who have broken links with him, are also seeking to unseat him.
Maigari will be doing it for the second time, having previously competed for presidency in 1992, the year Cameroon adopted multipartyism.
At least five political parties, including President Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), have more than a candidate on the list.
Leon Theiller Onana, one of the CPDM candidates, says Biya’s candidature violates party rules, as a congress that is supposed to validate him, was not held.
At Manidem, Kamto’s rivals say the party’s founding president, who led the endorsement, is no longer the legitimate leader.
Elecam has 20 days to scrutinise the applications and publish the final list of those who pass the vetting.
Those who fail have an opportunity to appeal at the Constitutional Council, the supreme legislative organ on electoral matters.
As the hopefuls jostle for the selection, all eyes are on Biya. At 92, he could be the oldest electoral contender in the world. He is the oldest head of state in the world, but is Africa’s second-longest serving president, after Teodoro Obiang Nguema of neighbouring Equatorial Guinea.
Biya announced on Sunday last week that he was determined to continue his mission of “ensuring the security and wellbeing” of Cameroonians to which, he said, he has devoted his time and energy since becoming head of state 43 years ago.
“The results are palpable, visible and laudable,” Biya said of his over four-decade tenure. He, however, admitted that that more remains to be done.
“In the face of an increasingly difficult international environment, the challenges facing us are more and more pressing,” he said, noting that, in such a situation, he cannot shirk his mission, for “the best is still to come.”
Like in the previous election, Biya said the decision to seek an eighth term in office is a favourable response to numerous and insistent calls from Cameroonians in the country and the diaspora to do so.
“Rest assured that my determination to serve you is commensurate with the numerous challenges facing us,” Biya told Cameroonians, stating that youth and women would be at the heart of his priorities in the new mandate.
Biya’s reign has been marked by a litany of challenges, including an armed conflict in the Anglophone regions of the country, which has killed more than 6,000 people for nearly a decade now.