October 12 poll: Biya swims in cash, challengers rant!.

Since "he who pays the piper calls the tune", elections are thus intertwined in the messy and iniquitous rallies, marked by a series of transactional gestures involving money, power and brute muscles.

The ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, party has all the attributes from money to power and the muscle to "moulinex" opponents if need be.

Lawmakers in Cameroon understood the frailty and penury of the opposition parties. Many of the over 300 opposition outfits exist only on the social media. Lawmakers understood such political outfits cannot survive without assistance. 

Law No. 2000/015 of 19 December 2000, relating to public funding of political parties, election campaigns and political parties, and Decree No. 2001/305 of 8 October 2001 to define the organisation, composition, duties and conditions of functioning of the Committee on the control of the use of public funds, earmarked guidelines for political parties.

It states that public funding shall serve to cover regular political party activities as well as for the organisation of election campaigns, adding that each year, the Finance Law shall include a subsidy to cover certain operating costs of legally recognised political parties.

It further states that subsidy shall be an allocation of public funds by the State to a political party to cover: recurrent administrative expenses, the dissemination of its political programme, the co-ordination of the political activities of its members and preparation for elections.

Section 9 states that: “The State shall contribute to the funding of election campaigns by defraying some of the expenses of political parties during elections; that the funding shall concern expenses relating in particular to the preparation, publishing and printing of circulars, manifestos and posters. These election campaign expenses include expenses resulting from the organisation of election meetings and logistics".

By those two fiats, what comes from the public treasury is often peanut change, part paid before the election and the rest after the results.

Take the case of the Parliamentary and Municipal elections of July 1, 2007, for example. Government had announced it allocated 1.5 billion CFA francs to fund the 44 participating parties in the elections.

The opposition SDF later revealed that the party had been promised 217 million FCFA with 108 million FCFA for the council elections and 109 million CFA for Legislative elections but some of the money was paid only after the polls.

The formula for distribution is not even equitable as it is skewed to favour the ruling party. What each gets is determined by the number of representatives in Parliament, where the CPDM has a crushing majority and so gets the lion's share of the State funds.

In a scenario where the electoral process has been notoriously questioned by international observers, the egregious nature of electoral financing, marked by relations of “quid pro quo” among the ruling party, top government officials, and directors of State corporations, has led to President Biya being flooded with hundreds of million if not billions, while the poor opposition rants over a consensus candidate.

Media headlines are tumbling over each other, announcing "North West CPDM mobilising 250 million, Santa CPDM raises 23 million FCFA, East Region over 116,000,000 FCFA with a minister coughing out 10 million; North West Region youth seven million, their South West counterpart, five million; national youth 40 million..." the train continues.

The opposition is in a diatribe, divided and fighting each other. They are unlikely to afford to send a representative to all of the 33,000 polling stations where the results are actually determined.

As an international observer has noted, "once you are not represented in any of those polling stations, even if just nine votes are cast for a party represented and the return sheet indicates 300 votes, the absentee has no locus standi to challenge it".

That is where the ruling party has a dominant advantage. With the mountain of cash, it has been the only political party represented in all the polling booths since the advent of multiparty politics in Cameroon.

It has the money, the resources, and even the intellectual acumen to convince the gullible that black is actually white. 

That should explain why the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Justice, Jean de Dieu Momo, has said the ruling party "is already behaving as if it has won the polls". 

Other top government officials like Dr Felix Zogo, Secretary General of the Ministry of Communication, even afforded the luxury of saying, "Biya will win even on a wheel chair".

But if the opposition concentrates on gentling into the skin of each other with Osih Joshua accusing the others of being influenced by the Presidency, Bello Bouba hitting Issa Tchiroma and others opposed to a consensus candidate,  instead of raising funds, they might just be using the campaign to lobby for a ministerial job in Biya's post-election victory or pocket the campaign funds from the State treasury, which past recipients have never accounted for as stipulated by the law.

Of the 11 opposition candidates in the October 12 poll, only Akere Muna, Bello Bouba and Issa Tchiroma appear to be in the political limelight seeking the support of Prof Maurice Kamto, who is perceived by some as opposition kingmaker.

Money, however, remains a determinant factor, and in a society where people can sell their soul for bread and sardine, Candidate Biya has not yet had his match.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3567 of Wednesday September 17, 2025