YAOUNDE: Cameroon’s constitutional court on Tuesday rejected the candidacy of President Paul Biya’s main opponent in October’s presidential election, the contender’s lawyer said.
The Constitutional Council ruled that the candidacy of Maurice Kamto, a high-profile critic of the longtime president, “cannot be valid and the immediate consequence is that he will not participate in the presidential race,” Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang told reporters after the hearing.
Biya, 92, has been in power since 1982 and is seeking an eighth term in office in the October 12 contest.
Kamto, 71, who resigned from the MRC at the end of June, came second to Biya in the 2018 presidential election.
He sought to run this time as the candidate for the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM) and had officially submitted his candidacy last month.
