Cameroon Constitutional Council says it’s “not competent” to verify the voter roll. So who is?

Yaoundé (Cameroon Concord News) – July 24 2025: Atangana’s “God-level” Court Folds Again as Kamto Fights for a Voter-Roll That Exists

The drama lasted barely three hours, but it laid bare everything rotten in Cameroon’s body politic.

This morning the Constitutional Council, chaired by octogenarian Clément Atangana, threw out opposition leader Maurice Kamto’s petition that asked a simple question: How do you run an election without a coherent electoral register?

Atangana’s answer was to wash his hands—again. Reading a terse ruling, the Council declared itself “not competent” to decide whether the national voter list exists in law or in fiction, adding with priestly flourish that “justice belongs to God.” 

What Kamto Wanted

Kamto’s lawyers from the Collectif Sylvain Souop argued that Article 80 of the 2012 Electoral Code obliges Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) to publish the entire roll so parties, observers and even ordinary citizens can check for ghost names and double entries.
“Without a valid register, the 12 October vote is a legal nullity,” lead counsel Emmanuel Simh told the packed courtroom. 

The team asked the Council to order ELECAM either to clean up the file or postpone the poll until it can be audited—no more, no less.

The Council’s Record: Rubber, Not Gavel

Today’s dodge is the fifth time since 2020 that the same court has pleaded incompetence on core electoral questions, including a near-identical MRC petition on 20 January 2020. Each retreat tightens President Paul Biya’s grip on the process while giving citizens ever fewer legal exits. 

“Atangana has become Biya’s final firewall,” notes constitutional scholar Dr Denis Nkwebo. “He shields the regime by refusing to rule.”

ELECAM Hides Behind ‘Privacy’

ELECAM’s counsel counter-punched with bureaucracy: putting the database online, they said, would breach “personal-data” laws. Instead, voters may check only their own names via an internet portal—a cruel joke in a country where two-thirds of citizens lack reliable electricity. 

Outside the court, 27-year-old motor-bike taxi rider André Ouandji spat the verdict: “If the list is clean, why hide it?”

Government Plays the Order Card

Interior minister Paul Atanga Nji had already primed the atmosphere at a governors’ meeting on 17 July, promising a “credible, transparent and peaceful” election—and warning that “those who refuse to board the train will be left behind.” 

Opposition and Church Close Ranks

The SDF and smaller parties quickly echoed Kamto’s demand for a public roll, calling ELECAM’s secrecy “a silent coup against the ballot box.” BaretaNews
Cameroon’s Catholic bishops, in a March pastoral letter, likewise labelled the current code “incapable of delivering a free, fair and transparent vote.”

What Happens Next?

• Supreme Court? Kamto can file there, but precedent suggests the clock will run out before 12 October 2025—the date fixed by presidential decree and confirmed last.

• Street pressure: Civil-society coalitions plan parallel tallies at polling stations, hoping to deter fraud where the courts refuse.

• International optics: Western embassies insist on “legal channels first,” but today’s ruling will land on their desks as further proof of institutional capture.

Concord Comment

If today proved anything, it is that Cameroon’s electoral umpire is playing for one side only. By ducking its constitutional duty, Atangana’s court has chosen smoke and mirrors over sunlight, turning the fight for a genuine voter roll into yet another showdown between palace loyalists and an electorate desperate for change.

In the words of an exasperated lawyer outside the Palace of Congresses: “We came for justice; we were told to wait for God. Meanwhile, Biya files his papers.”

Cameroon may yet vote on 12 October, but after this morning’s farce the real verdict on the regime’s legitimacy will be delivered in the court of public opinion—and that court, unlike Atangana’s, never adjourns.