President Paul Biya Headquarters Yaoundé, Cameroon Seats in the National Assembly 148 / 180 | Founded 1960 Ideology Big tent | |
The Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM, French: Rassemblement démocratique du Peuple Camerounais, RDPC) is the ruling political party in Cameroon. Previously known as the Cameroonian National Union, which had dominated Cameroon politics since independence in 1960, it was renamed in 1985. The National President of the CPDM is Paul Biya, the President of Cameroon, while the Secretary-General of the RDPC's Central Committee is Jean Nkuete.
History
The CPDM won 88 out of 180 seats in the National Assembly of Cameroon in the March 1992 parliamentary election, and through an alliance with the Movement for the Defense of the Republic (MDR), which won six seats, it obtained a parliamentary majority. Biya subsequently won the October 1992 presidential election with about 40% of the vote, ahead of John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), who won about 36%. The CPDM gained 116 of the 180 seats in the May 1997 parliamentary election (it initially won 109 seats, but it subsequently won in the three constituencies where the election was held over again in August, gaining seven more seats) and in the October 1997 presidential election, Biya received 92.6% of the vote amidst an opposition boycott. In the parliamentary election held on 30 June 2002, the party won 149 out of 180 seats, including 16 seats won in a revote on 15 September for constituencies where the election had been invalidated. In the presidential election held on 11 October 2004, Biya won 70.9% of the vote.
The CPDM won 140 out of the 163 initially declared seats in the July 2007 parliamentary election, and it won another 13 seats (out of 17 at stake) in constituencies where the vote was held over again in September, thus winning a total of 153 seats.
The party held its first ordinary congress, at which Biya told the party to prepare for competition as the move toward multiparty democracy was beginning, on June 28, 1990 in Yaoundé. The CPDM's first extraordinary congress was held in Yaoundé on October 7, 1995, and its second ordinary congress was held on December 17–19, 1996. The party held its second extraordinary congress on July 7, 2001 and its third extraordinary congress on July 21, 2006 in Yaoundé. Biya has been consistently re-elected as the CPDM's National President.