By Mua Patrick, September 12, 2016
Cameroon Journal, Yaounde- The 4th ordinary congress of the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM party, has been scheduled for September 29, The Cameroon Journal has learnt.
The congress, we learned, is expected to last three days.
Our source who preferred not to be named said during the congress President Biya will reorganize the Politburo and the Central Committee of the party. Some members of the Politburo and the Central Committee of the party, it should be noted, have either died or resigned. Some others are serving prison terms in prisons across Cameroon for issues related to financial crimes committed while serving the state.
We learnt President Biya is not expected to face any major nomination challenge within the party though last month, a member of the party, one Saint Eloi Bidoung emerged declaring his intention to challenge Biya as Chairman of the party.
Bidoung who is deputy Mayor of the Yaounde VI Council has said Biya is too old to steer the ship of the party effectively. He claims that he is not only young and energetic, but has the intellectual and mental alertness to make the CPDM great again.
In 2011, in what critics of the regime had described as ‘’drama’’, one of the party’s bigwigs, Rene Ze Nguele, challenged Biya for chairmanship during the congress but suffered a humiliating defeat.
It should be noted that one of the key provisions in the by-laws of the CPDM, requires that the party holds a congress prior to a major political event.
The announced congress, observers have been interpreting might just be a signal for early presidential election to be organised in Cameroon in the months ahead.
Section 18 (1) of the by-laws, it should be said, presents the congress of the party as the organ that defines the political, economic, social, and cultural guidelines of the CPDM.
Earlier in the month of August, media organs reported that President Paul Biya and the Secretary General of the ruling CPDM party had held discussions to chat on the organisation of the forthcoming congress of the party.
According to media reports, the meeting which took place on the 18th of August 2016 at Unity Palace gave an opportunity for both men to exchange ideas on the preparations for the next congress of the party.
An Ordinary Congress of the party holds every five years. The current congress comes up at the time Paul Biya’s mandate, current chairman of the party, expires this week.
The last congress of the CPDM took place in September 2011 and rubber stamped Biya’s current mandate as chairman.
He has been head of the party since creation in 1985.