STATEMENT FROM THE NATIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE CRM, PROFESSOR MAURICE KAMTO,
REGARDING THE ONGOING CONSTITUTIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL COUP BY THE CPDM REGIME.
Yaoundé, April 3, 2026
My dear compatriots,
For nearly a year, the political landscape was entirely dominated by those who had spent years perpetuating the myth that I was the obstacle to the formation of a coalition of opposition parties and candidates, the only force capable of securing an electoral victory over the dictatorial regime in power. By a brutal and unprecedented decision of this regime, I was barred from running in the 2025 presidential election. But Cameroonians saw no coalition: neither one of the opposition parties and candidates, nor even among those who had spent their time selling their youth to the Cameroonian people. Other national political actors claimed to have an alternative to elections to overthrow the regime and bring Cameroonians the radical change they had longed for. Cameroonians waited and did not see this path. The presidential election of October 12, 2025, has the merit of having created a shockwave on the national political scene. As the leader of a political party and not of some militia, I believe that the electoral path makes it possible to create the conditions for an alternative change in a political society that prides itself on playing the game of elections, even if its leaders do not believe in it.
I am addressing you today because our country has entered a new political phase that is critical and more dangerous than ever, following the presidential election of October 12, 2025. I do so in the name of the threefold duty of vigilance, truth and responsibility.
The duty of vigilance and alert, which is its corollary, requires me to draw the attention of Cameroonians to the perilous manipulations of the electoral calendar by the CPDM regime which has begun, at least in the recent period, by extending the mandates of Members of the National Assembly and municipal councilors and consequently postponing the legislative and municipal elections from 2025 to 2026, for fallacious reasons. Initially, the postponement of these elections was solely intended to punish the MRC for not falling into the trap of the combined legislative and municipal elections of 2020. I drew the attention of our fellow citizens to this matter and warned the Government against this violation of the Constitution, the country’s fundamental law, specifically Article 15, paragraph 4. Our detractors responded that we should simply not have boycotted the 2020 elections, and that we could not benefit from our own misdeeds, as if a political party’s boycott of elections could justify a violation of the Constitution by the Government. The sole objective pursued by the CPDM regime re mains the preservation of power for life, at any cost.
As proof, today in 2026, this regime is repeating itself and trampling on the Constitution again by extending the mandate of the Members of the National Assembly once more and manipulating the electoral law to remove the limit on the extension of the mandate of municipal councilors.
We thus find ourselves in a situation where the current government lacks all legitimacy and, in principle, can no longer govern the country. Indeed, all national and local institutions elected by popular vote are illegitimate. None of them can claim popular support among the majority of Cameroonian voters: the election of the President of the Republic is seriously contested; the members of the National Assembly are no longer elected by popular vote; neither are the municipal councilors, and they have passed on their illegitimacy to the regional councilors supposedly “elected” by them at the end of 2025.
In short, today in our country, neither the President of the Republic, nor the members of parliament, nor the municipal councilors, nor the regional councilors are legitimate. Beneath a veneer of tranquility and stability, and despite the usual triumphalism of those who trample the rule of law underfoot in Cameroon, our country is experiencing an unprecedented political and institutional crisis. In the past, people were careful to maintain appearances. Today, the emperor has no clothes.
As if that weren’t enough, abruptly interrupting parliamentary proceedings, the incumbent President of the Republic introduced a bill to amend the Constitution, which provides for the creation of a Vice-Presidential post. This Vice-President will not be elected, but appointed by him at his discretion. He will also be able to replace him whenever he pleases.
During his inauguration ceremony on November 6, 2025, the President of the Republic, re-elected thanks to the Constitutional Council and the defense and security forces as in 2018, swore to protect the Constitution. Less than six months later, he is brutally trampling on this same Constitution, thus demonstrating once again his contempt for the Cameroonian people, whom he has always regarded as nothing more than a collection of subjects subservient to the monarch he is. No debate has been organized by the Government to inform the public about the ongoing upheavals. There has been no explanation, nor the slightest consultation or involvement of the country’s political forces, not even those represented in Parliament. He could have indicated his intentions during the campaign for the October 2025 presidential election. He did nothing of the sort.
Two profound truths lie behind the current maneuvers, which are being given a legal veneer.
The first point is that the CPDM has always had a visceral fear of elections because, by virtue of its political heritage and the context of its rise to power, it carries the DNA of the single-party system it inherited. For decades, it boasted of being a “steamroller.” The relentless political work of the opposition, particularly over the last decade, has shown that it only survives thanks to a sophisticated system of electoral fraud, refined over the years, and the complicity of administrative authorities and security forces at all levels. Now, this is compounded by the dismantling of the laws of the Republic and a level of political and judicial brutality worthy of fascist regimes. It is this paralyzing fear of elections that gives rise to the idea of transferring power through backroom deals.
When we denounced this temptation, which began to manifest itself after the 2018 presidential election, we were vilified and thrown in jail. But the idea began to take shape administratively with the decree of February 5, 2019, delegating permanent signature authority from the President of the Republic, supposedly “elected” only two months earlier, to the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic (SGPR), who was specifically named. This quiet transfer of power is contained in Article 2 of the said decree, which stipulates that the SGPR “will himself determine which matters he deems appropriate to reserve for the signature of the President of the Republic.”
So, as early as 2018, the incumbent President of the Republic knew he was no longer fit to lead the country. Yet he stole the victory in that year’s presidential election. Some tolerated him, no doubt for various reasons, including the naive hope that he would be reasonable and not run in the 2025 presidential election. Meanwhile, Cameroonians endured a virtually blank seven-year term (2018-2025), or worse, one during which the country’s overall economic, political, and social situation deteriorated significantly. Not only did he run again in the 2025 presidential election, but he also secured victory once more through institutions he had established to further his goal of clinging to power indefinitely.
And now, with the complicity of his various supporters, he is shifting the transfer of power from the administrative to the political and institutional sphere. Some are calling it a constitutional coup, and they are not wrong. What is underway is indeed an unconstitutional power grab, condemned by the legal instruments of the African Union, whose reaction we eagerly await. This is all the more important given that Article 64 of the current Constitution stipulates that “no constitutional amendment may be adopted if it undermines [among other things] democratic principles.”
The current President of the Republic didn’t have to look far. He reinstated the same constitutional mechanism by which the 1979 constitutional revision under President Ahmadou Ahidjo had allowed him, as Prime Minister at the time, to become President of the Republic. This time, it will be an appointed Vice-President, not a Prime Minister. But the logic and the results are the same. It is a constitutional loophole that will allow even an individual who has never held a position in the administration or an elected office to become President of the Republic, Head of State, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces without having gone through an election. One might say that history is repeating itself. But it’s even worse, because the Vice-President, having become an unelected President, will himself be able to appoint another (unelected) Vice-President! This is the meaning of the draft constitutional revision of April 2, 2026. It is not a regression, it is a constitutional and political shipwreck.
Indeed, this pseudo- constitutional revision, which at first glance only concerns a few provisions of the Constitution regarding the office of President of the Republic, is leading to a major upheaval of the Republic’s institutions. Through the transfer of power by mutual agreement, the sitting President is establishing a constitutionally based republican monarchy, with a hereditary or nepotistic dynasty.
Dear fellow citizens,
With full responsibility, we denounce in the strongest possible terms this institutional power grab disguised as legality. Ladies and gentlemen of Parliament, you cannot vote for a law that destroys the constitutional foundations of our Republic. The consequences of this seemingly minor constitutional revision are such that the Cameroonian people should have been consulted through a referendum. The CPDM regime believes it has entrenched itself forever, but it is mistaken. It will understand that in a republic, power comes from the people. And Cameroonians now know this. Dear citizens of my country, remember in your minds and hearts the constant contempt shown to you, and put an end to this ongoing constitutional coup d’état at every future election. For the work we have accomplished together for the past fifteen years is bearing fruit. We have electorally defeated the CPDM. This is historic.
Generally, a government that has just won a presidential election takes advantage of the momentum of its victory to immediately organize legislative and even local elections. This is observed worldwide. It is because the CPDM is certain of its defeat that it is avoiding elections at all costs, even though it claims to have won the presidential election five months earlier.
We must prevent the political misfortune afflicting our country from flourishing. We must all, together, clearly and loudly express our rejection of the ongoing constitutional and institutional coup. To this end, we will launch an online petition campaign so that Cameroonians, regardless of their political affiliation, can voice their opinions.
The sovereign people must remain confident and strong, and ultimately decide who is the true President of the Republic of Cameroon, who are the true Members of the National Assembly, the true municipal councillors and mayors of our cities, the true regional councillors, invested with its trust and therefore its legitimacy.
The day will dawn on our country.
Long live Cameroon!