Cameroon’s opposition CRM is asking its members to prepare for the next legislative and municipal elections despite an unresolved dispute with the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MINAT) that could affect the validity of its candidate endorsements.
The call appeared in an August 31, 2026 statement signed by Justin Roger Noah, deputy secretary general for communications, one day after security forces broke up an CRM meeting in Bertoua in the East region.
According to the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), its Regional Assembly of Structures was held on Sunday, August 30, at a fenced private residence with identified participants when a contingent of gendarmes ended the meeting. The party said the intervention followed instructions from Bertoua II Divisional Officer Orfeo Benasconi Nkomo Mimbo’o.
The secretaries of the party’s regional federation and its Lom-et-Djerem departmental federation were reportedly detained and later released. According to the CRM, the stated offense was holding an undeclared public meeting. The administration’s account was not available in the sources reviewed as of September 1.
The CRM disputes the characterization of the gathering as a public meeting. Article 2 of Law No. 90/055 of December 19, 1990 defines a public meeting as one held in a public place or a place open to the public. Article 3 requires such meetings to be declared in advance.
The dispute therefore centers on the nature of the venue and who had access to it. If the CRM’s description of a closed private residence and known participants is established, the classification of the event as a public meeting could be challenged. That alone, however, would not definitively determine whether the intervention was lawful.
Leadership dispute could affect candidate endorsements
The latest confrontation follows an August 19 letter in which MINAT said it could not formally acknowledge the minutes of the CRM’s extraordinary convention held online on December 21, 2025. That convention reelected Maurice Kamto as party president with 95.44% of votes cast, according to results published by the CRM.
The ministry maintains that only the party bodies established at the third ordinary convention on December 9-10, 2023 remain valid. It cites, among other grounds, a November 27, 2025 order by the Yaoundé IV divisional officer that prohibited the convention originally planned as an in-person event.
The CRM says the December 21 convention was instead held online and that it submitted amendments to its internal rules allowing that format to the administration. MINAT’s position does not amount to the dissolution of the CRM or an advance rejection of its candidates. It could, however, lead to a dispute over who has the authority to formally endorse them.
For both legislative and municipal elections, Cameroon’s Electoral Code requires each candidate’s application to include a document confirming sponsorship by the candidate’s political party.
The continuing dispute over the CRM leadership could therefore raise questions about the validity of those endorsements. Elections Cameroon’s Electoral Board is responsible for reviewing candidate lists, and rejected applications can be challenged. At this stage, it would therefore be premature to conclude that the CRM will be excluded from the elections.
Legislative vote points to 2027, but no common election date is set
Law No. 2026/001 of March 25, 2026 extended the terms of National Assembly members until December 20, 2026. Article 15 of Cameroon’s Constitution provides that, when parliamentary terms are extended, elections for a new National Assembly must take place no earlier than 40 days and no later than 120 days after the extended term expires. Under the current rules, that would place the legislative elections between January 29 and April 19, 2027.
Municipal councilors’ terms were separately extended until February 28, 2027 by a May 4 decree. An April 14, 2026 reform of the Electoral Code allows the president to extend or shorten those terms after consulting the government, without setting a maximum period for holding the election under that provision. Official documents reviewed as of September 1, 2026 therefore establish neither a date for the legislative and municipal elections nor that the two votes will take place on the same day.
In its statement, the CRM linked the Bertoua incident to a series of previous disputes with the authorities. These include Maurice Kamto’s exclusion from the 2025 presidential election, which became final on August 5 after the Constitutional Council rejected his appeal; the November 27, 2025 ban on the party convention; and MINAT’s refusal to recognize the leadership elected in December.
Despite those disputes, the CRM is telling its members to continue preparations for the coming elections. “Do not give up. Prepare for the legislative and municipal elections,” Noah said, calling on party members to remain calm but determined. The call signals the CRM’s intention to return to parliamentary and municipal competition after boycotting both elections held on February 9, 2020.
Ludovic Amara