Two years ahead of the presidential elections in Cameroon, Cabral Libii faces internal discord within his party, the PCRN. The opposition figure and deputy is preparing for the party’s congress next month in Kribi, focusing on upcoming local, legislative, and presidential elections in 2025.
In the 2020 local elections, his party secured five parliamentary seats and seven municipalities. However, the historic founder of PCRN, Robert Kona, now expresses his intent to “reclaim his party.” To achieve this, he has taken legal action against seven individuals, including Cabral Libii, in a court in the Far North region.
Robert Kona aims to annul the Guidiguis congress of May 11, 2019, in the Far North region, during which Cabral Libii was designated president of PCRN, the Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation.
At that time, Cabral Libii, who finished third in the 2018 presidential election behind President Paul Biya and Maurice Kamto, struggled to legalize his party, “Les Citoyens.” He could no longer rely on Prosper Nkou Mvondo’s U.N.I.V.E.R.S party. Consequently, Cabral Libii sought a new political platform.
Robert Kona, a retired civil servant, was a former member of Cameroon’s single-party UNC (Union nationale camerounaise) and later an early supporter of the RDPC (Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais). He co-founded PCRN in 2001 with Albert Fleury Massardine, successfully legalizing it in 2003.
However, the party remained dormant, with no significant activism or regular party congresses organized under Robert Kona’s leadership. In 2019, at Guidiguis, Robert Kona willingly passed the party’s presidency to Cabral Libii, becoming its honorary national president.
Kona accuses Cabral Libii of neglecting him. “I am not consulted on certain decisions, and most importantly, we do not communicate regularly; since last December, we have not spoken.”
In December 2022, during the Ngaoundere Congress in the Adamawa region, a special commission was established by PCRN. It is tasked with launching a project to build a house for the party’s founding fathers, Albert Fleury Massardine and Robert Kona.