The opposition Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN) party has assured its supporters that its leader, Hon. Cabral Libii, will stand for the 2025 presidential elections, against all odds.
The assurance comes in the wake of recent attempts by Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, to thwart Libii’s candidacy.
The Minister has also been backing a PCRN faction led by one of the party’s founding members Robert Kona. He has, therefore, refused to recognize Libii’s headship.
Administrative authorities, including Divisional Officers and Senior Divisional Officers answerable to Atanga Nji, have repeatedly banned Cabral Libii‘s political activities in their areas of command.
With all these happenings, the PCRN believes Minister Paul Atanga Nji is ensuring that Cabral Libii doesn’t stand for the October elections.
At a national executive meeting held at the party’s headquarters in Yaounde recently, militants examined the “various persecutions suffered by the party since December 2023 and future perspectives.”
Amongst several resolutions, the party assured supporters of the candidacy of Cabral Libii.
Militants also frowned at the government’s attempts to frustrate the party’s activities and promised to fight back with all available options.
PCRN Forms Legal Team to Handle MINAT Excesses
One of the decisions the PCRN took at the meeting was to set up a legal team to ensure the prosecution of administrators impeding the party’s activities.
A recent tour which Cabral Libii undertook to the East, Adamawa, and Center Regions faced bans from some administrators.
The executive meeting’s final communique announced the immediate establishment of a group of legal experts and lawyers, coordinated by Vice-President Barrister René Roger Bebe. This group will explore and implement all legal means to ensure that the Minister of Territorial Administration (MINAT), heads of administrative units, and other public officials and law enforcement officers who violate the law and disregard court decisions face prosecution in court for their actions.
The party’s Vice President stated in a final communique: “The National President receives the mandate to witness and inform the national and international community, using all means that leave traces, about the harassment faced by the PCRN and its President.”
No hindrance to Cabral Libi’s Candidacy
The party clarified militants on the controversy surrounding the leadership of the party.
The PCRN has faced a leadership crisis where the Minister of Territorial Administration has played a key role.
MINAT recognized regime loyalist, Robert Kona, who is a PCRN founding member, as head of the party.
The MINAT recognition further contradicted a court ruling upholding Cabral Libi as President of the party.
“Therefore, there is no need to be affected by the persecutions and relentless attacks against the party, or by the contradictory, illegal, and irresponsible agitations orchestrated by the Minister of Territorial Administration,” the PCRN communique maintained.
It also called on militants to massively enroll on the electoral register.
Risk of Mass Protests
The PCRN did not rule out the possibility of mass protests erupting in Cameroon as a response to high cost of living, and bad governance.
According to the party, restrictions on political demonstrations, meetings, and the opposition are whipping up tensions in the country.
They also mention the disastrous state of roads and hospitals, rising urban insecurity, low purchasing power, threats of church closures, increases in taxes and fees for obtaining national identity cards; scarcity of drinking water electricity as major triggers of protests.
With these, the party said, “the possibility of explosive manisfestation of discontent can no longer be excluded. “
“Those responsible for abuses of power and violations of civil and political rights, as well as those who allow them to occur, will be held solely accountable,” it warned.
