How Paul Biya Received Special Treatment During Candidacy Submission

With 82 candidates submitting their files to Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) to vie for the presidency in the October 2025 election, incumbent President Paul Biya’s candidacy has sparked concerns over preferential treatment.

Biya, challenged by prominent opposition figures like Maurice Kamto, Joshua Osih, Akere Muna, and Cabral Libii—all of whom ran in the 2018 presidential election—received notably different treatment during the submission process.

Three key institutions manage and declare election results in Cameroon: ELECAM, the Ministry of Territorial Administration, and the Constitutional Council.

While aspirants submitted their candidacy files to ELECAM’s regional offices or headquarters in Yaounde last week, the reception process varied significantly.

Most candidates or their representatives were met by standard ELECAM staff, who processed their files and took photographs.

Candidates like Akere Muna, Cabral Libii and Paul Biya sent representatives.

However, when Biya’s emissaries, Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency, and Jean Nkuete, Secretary General of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), arrived, they were personally received by ELECAM’s Director General, Eric Essousse.

This high-level reception contrasted the standard procedure for other candidates.

The special treatment didn’t end there. On the evening of Biya’s file submission, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, issued a document acknowledging receiving Biya’s candidacy file, an action not extended to other aspirants.

Such preferential treatment has raised questions about the impartiality of ELECAM and the electoral process, particularly in how results will be handled.