Cameroon's opposition MRC elects its first female president, Tiriane Noah

Cameroon’s main opposition MRC elected a new party president on Saturday, Tiriane Balbine Noah. She replaces Maurice Kamto and becomes the first woman to lead the party.

Cameroon’s main opposition MRC held its extraordinary elective congress on Saturday, despite intense pressure was put on authorities to ban the meeting.

Supporters gathered at the party headquarters in Yaoundé to elect their new leader and denounce the restrictions they say they face.

“Unfortunately, in Cameroon, things are done in such a way that everything becomes extraordinary," Joseph Emmanuel Ateba, National Secretary in Charge of Party Reform, told Africanews.

"The MRC, a party that has been persecuted since its inception, is unfortunately not allowed to exercise its rights. So today, we can only be pleased that this congress is taking place under good conditions and that we have been granted the authorisation.”

Twelve hundred party delegates were there to choose a successor to Professor Maurice Kamto. He led the party for 14 years before resigning last month.

Second Vice-President Tiriane Balbine Noah has been interim president ever since and on Saturday, she ran for the post unopposed after her only challenger withdrew.

“Maurice Kamto has trained people, great guardians like Tiriane Balbine Noah, who served as Vice-President of the MRC," said Kuesbi Mefo Thierry, an MRC delegate.

"Today, we are proud to make her our president.”

Noah was elected with more than 96 per cent of the vote. The result secures her a renewable five-year term and makes her the party’s first female president.

“All the activists who have paid with their lives, their freedom, their safety and their commitment deserve recognition," Noah said in a speech to the convention.

"Our conduct throughout this congress will be the finest political tribute we can pay to our former national president, a genuine democrat, a humanist and a man of peace.”

Kamto and his deputy stepped down in a bid to save the MRC amid suspicions that the government was attempting to dismantle the party. Now as Noah starts her term, the MRC is setting its sights on the 2027 local elections.