The political battle for control of the North West has begun taking shape, with the three parties most visibly positioning themselves ahead of the forthcoming municipal and legislative elections in Cameroon.
First came the Social Democratic Front (SDF). Then the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) entered the field with an ambitious plan to challenge the established political order. Now the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) has activated its regional and divisional structures in what is shaping up to be a major contest for the councils and parliamentary seats in the region.
The stakes are high.
The CPDM currently runs 35 of the 36 councils in the North West, including the Bamenda City Council and the North West Regional Council. That gives the ruling party a formidable starting position, but it also places a considerable burden on it to defend a political map that the opposition parties now openly want to redraw.
For the SDF, the coming elections are about recovery.
For the MRC, they are about breaking into a political space historically dominated by the CPDM and SDF.
For the CPDM, they are about defending and potentially consolidating an overwhelming hold on local government.
The SDF was the first of the three parties to make its electoral intentions particularly clear.
At its Strategic Regional Conference in Bamenda on 5 July, the party resolved to intensify grassroots mobilisation, reorganise its structures, reconcile militants and prepare for elections that could be announced at any time.
Their objective was to recover council and parliamentary seats it believes it lost.
That ambition is closely associated with Regional Chairperson and Bamenda III Mayor Fongu Cletus Tanwe's "Operation Take Back Bamenda", which has sought to rebuild the presence of the party in its traditional stronghold.
The resolutions of the SDF show that its leadership understands that political revival cannot depend on rallies alone.
The party wants every polling station in the North West manned. It is pushing voter registration, regular electoral district meetings, consensual candidate lists and closer attention to polling station locations.
It has also created mediation mechanisms for electoral districts where internal disagreements could undermine candidate selection.
These details may appear administrative, but they could prove decisive.
The SDF is trying to rebuild the machinery required to convert political popularity into votes.
Its greatest asset remains its historical presence in the North West. Its greatest challenge is that the political environment has changed significantly since the period when it was the dominant opposition force in the region.
The question is therefore whether "taking back" Bamenda and the wider North West can move from a political slogan to measurable electoral gains.
The MRC has entered the race with an even more ambitious proposition.
Its North West Regional Coordinator, Moritz Kube, says the party wants to win all 34 council seats in the region while strengthening its representation in Parliament.
The target is striking, particularly for a party seeking to establish itself against two organisations with considerably deeper political roots in the region.
But the MRC has begun trying to give its ambition a grassroots structure.
Its call for prospective council and parliamentary candidates in Bui Division, covering Kumbo, Jakiri, Mbiame, Nkum, Noni, Nkor and Oku, suggests that the party is moving from regional messaging towards constituency level recruitment.
That could become one of the defining features of the MRC campaign.
If the party is serious about contesting all 34 councils, it needs candidates in all the right places, functioning local structures and sufficient polling station representation. It also needs candidates who can persuade voters that the MRC is more than an alternative on paper.
The appeal by the party is to present itself as a new political direction focused on accountable leadership, economic opportunity, education, healthcare, local governance and inclusive development.
The harder task will be translating that message into electoral organisation.
The MRC is not merely challenging the CPDM. Its ambition also puts it directly into competition with the SDF for voters who may be looking for an opposition alternative.
That makes the emergence of the MRC potentially significant.
The CPDM has now made its response clear.
At a strategic seminar of its North West Regional Permanent Delegation on 21 August, chaired by the Head of the CPDM Central Committee Permanent Regional Delegation, Prime Minister Emeritus Philemon Yang, the party set out its electoral priorities.
They include expanding the number of CPDM leaning voters on the electoral register, selecting popular and credible candidates, mobilising militants and ensuring that council and parliamentary seats do not fall into opposition hands.
The regional seminar was followed on 22 August by similar meetings involving the seven party divisional delegations in Bui, Boyo, Donga Mantung, Menchum, Mezam, Momo and Ngoketunjia.
The process is expected to continue down to section level, where the structures of the party will address the specific political, social and security realities of their constituencies.
The scale of this mobilisation is understandable.
A party controlling 35 of 36 councils has much more to lose than its challengers.
The CPDM is not entering the election hoping to establish a presence. It is defending an existing political dominance.
That changes the nature of the campaign.
Every council lost by the ruling party would represent a tangible retreat. Every seat retained would reinforce its existing position.
On paper, the CPDM begins with an enormous advantage.
But council control is not necessarily the same thing as electoral strength at every level.
The coming election will test the popularity of individual candidates, the effectiveness of local party structures and the ability of each party to mobilise voters.
This is particularly important because municipal and legislative elections produce different political calculations.
A candidate may be strong in one municipality but less competitive in a parliamentary constituency. A party may have an established council structure but struggle to translate that advantage into legislative seats.
The SDF therefore needs to identify where its historical support remains strong and where it can realistically regain ground.
The MRC has an even more difficult calculation. Its ambition to win all 34 councils will require it to compete effectively across the entire region, rather than concentrate its resources in a handful of politically receptive areas.
The CPDM, meanwhile, has to defend a vast existing network while managing candidate selection in a way that does not create internal rivalries or weaken local support.
Beyond the party strategies lies the fundamental question of how many people will actually participate?
Political parties can organise conferences, recruit candidates and mobilise militants, but they cannot force voters to turn out.
The electoral environment in the North West has been profoundly disrupted over recent years. Public political activity, movement and community mobilisation have all been affected, creating a very different environment from the one in which earlier electoral contests were fought.
That makes voter registration, confidence, accessibility of polling stations and the credibility of candidates particularly important.
The decision of the SDF to focus on polling station coverage and voter registration reflects this reality.
The emphasis of the CPDM on expanding its voter base does the same.
And the attempt by the MRC to recruit candidates across the divisions suggests that it understands that political competition will ultimately be decided at community level.
The coming elections therefore present three very different political missions.
The CPDM is defending a dominant position. With 35 of 36 councils under its control, it has the advantage of incumbency, organisation and experience, but also the largest political territory to defend.
The SDF is attempting a comeback. Its challenge is to transform its renewed regional visibility and organisational reforms into actual electoral recovery.
The MRC is attempting a breakthrough. Its ambition to contest and win all 34 councils represents the most disruptive proposition yet, but also demands the greatest expansion of its grassroots machinery.
The contest could therefore become less about whether the CPDM will remain the strongest party in the North West and more about how much of its current dominance it can retain, how much the SDF can recover and whether the MRC can establish itself as a serious third force.
That is where the real political battle lies.
The North West is no longer looking at a simple CPDM versus SDF contest. The MRC has entered the field with the stated intention of changing the equation.
The coming months will show whether this is the beginning of a genuinely competitive three way race or simply a larger field surrounding an established political order.
For now, the battle lines have been drawn.
The CPDM is defending its stronghold. The SDF is coming for lost ground. The MRC wants to disrupt both.
By Bakah Derick for Hilltopvoices Web
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