The president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party, Maurice Kamto, has made a bold accusation against the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party (CPDM).
He alleges that the party is recruiting foreign nationals to vote for long-serving President Paul Biya in this year’s Presidential elections.
The aspiring Presidential candidate made the accusations in a statement shared on his Facebook page Thursday, February 27.
He claims that CPDM elites are illegally issuing foreign nationals identification cards, with the complicity of the Directorate General for National Security (DGNS).
With these ID cards, they then help the foreigners who, under normal circumstances cannot vote, to obtain voter cards.
The elites, he adds, then keep these voter cards waiting for election day in October.
Kamto says this is happening under the watch of the elections management organ, Elecam, which he has previously accused of masterminding electoral fraud.
“It is cruel that Africans who enjoy the fraternal hospitality of Cameroonians should agree to play this criminal game at a time when our people are mobilising in fierce adversity to give themselves a future through the forthcoming presidential election,” said Kamto.
“Whether consciously or unconsciously driven by the dream of perpetual power over Cameroon, the current regime is granting Cameroonian nationality to foreigners who have not applied for it or renounced their nationality of origin, while preventing millions of Cameroonians in the Diaspora from taking part in the elections.”
He implored foreign diplomats in Cameroon to caution their citizens against the practice.
Schemes to Keep Biya in Power
Maurice Kamto, who came second in the 2018 Presidential elections, believes the government is doing everything possible to retain 92-year-old Paul Biya in power.
Biya is widely speculated to contest for the election, although he has not declared his intentions while militants of his party call for his candidature.
Maurice Kamto believes that the CPDM uses state institutions, such as Elecam, the police, and the judiciary, to maintain Biya’s hold on power.
He previously raised concerns about electoral fraud after Elecam did not publish the voter registers in December 2024 as the electoral code specifies.
Kamto issued strong criticisms after a man in a CPDM uniform appeared in a video holding hundreds of national ID cards.
He claimed that someone used these IDs to register ghost voters.
