Story, Louvier Kindo Tombe
The official lists of candidates are contained in RESOLUTION No. 002/R/ELECAM/CE of 7 February 2023. Members of the Electoral Board unanimously accepted 22 (twenty-two) lists of candidates.
The presentation of the lists was done on Tuesday, 7 January 2923, at the head office of Elecam in Yaounde.
While presenting the lists of accepted candidates, the Chairperson of the Electoral Board, Dr. Enow Abrams Egbe, maintained that they arrived at the lists after a careful examination of the candidacy files based on provisions of the electoral code. He added that they examined a total of 32 (thirty-two) lists of candidatures that were presented by 13 (thirteen) political parties for the said election.
Overview of Candidacies
Out of the 22 lists of candidates, 10 belong to the ruling CPDM party. The CPDM is the only party presenting candidates in all the 10 regions of the country.
“We are already sure of winning 14 senators in the South West and South regions of Cameroon since we are not competing with anyone,” Minister Grégoire Owona, who represented the CPDM party at the ceremony told reporters.
The NUDP party is presenting candidates in 4 regions of the country.
“We are targeting only areas where we have planted our strongholds,” Pierre Flambeau Ngayap, NUDP aspiring senator said.
The Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU) party, the Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation (CPNR) and others are stepping into the race to pick their first ever senators.
“We are confident to win in the west region because we are presenting an interesting project and qualified candidates,” Hon. Koupit Adamou of the CDU party said.
For the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, the idea is not only to win but it is their civic rights to participate in elections organized by Cameroon. The SDF is presenting candidates only in the North West and Adamawa regions.
Most of the candidates and party representatives who talked to News Upfront said they were not surprised that their lists were validated by Elecam.
“We just came here to witness the publication, we were confident owing to the lists we filed,” Ekani Ottou of the FDC party told this reporter.
Out of the 10 lists rejected by Elecam are the lists presented by the UPC party.
“I am not surprised, how do you think we can participate when we came in diverse rangs,” says Roland Parfait Ebode, national secretary for communication.
Two seperate factions to the UPC party presented lists to Elecam. It is alleged that the situation played to their disfavour.
A New Face
Judging from the 22 validated lists, it is clear that the next generation of senators would constitute mostly of younger personalities and women.
All the parties especially the CPDM party has brought in women and youths. New faces have also been brought in.
The Way Forward
From the publication of the list of candidates, political parties whose lists were rejected have 72 hours to petition the constitutional council.
The constitutional council will have to react to the petition within a period of 10 days after the deadline for submitting petitions expires.
In the meantime, official campaigns ahead of the March 12 senatorial elections will begin on February 25, 2023.
