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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.

In the 2018 election, Kamto stood for the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) but under the electoral code, parties wanting to run in the presidential election must have MPs in parliament or deputies in municipal councils.

The MRC boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections in 2020.

Constitutional Council president Clement Atangana ruled Kamto’s appeals were admissible for the court to hear but then judged them “unfounded.”

Another MANIDEM candidate submitted his candidacy, but that was also rejected.

After the ruling, Kamto did not comment.

MANIDEM president Anicet Ekane called it “a political decision. We take note of it.

“For the time being, we will not make a statement. We are reflecting on the decision and will decide,” said Ekane.

No media outlet was authorized to broadcast the Constitutional Council’s debates and decisions live.

The ministry of territorial administration announced the arrest of several people accused of disturbing public order near its premises.

Cameroon’s opposition is struggling to challenge the Biya administration.

On Saturday, a group of representatives from several parties published a statement in which they committed “to the choice of a consensus candidate around a common program” without any name being put forward.

In the run-up to Kamto’s exclusion, Human Rights Watch had warned that not allowing him to stand would raise concerns about the credibility of the electoral process.

“Excluding the most popular opponent from the electoral process will leave a shadow over whatever results are eventually announced,” warned Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at HRW.

The NGO warned that the move reflected “the government’s long-standing intolerance of any opposition and dissent, and comes amid increased repression of opponents, activists, and lawyers since mid-2024.”

So far, Cameroon’s Election Commission has approved 13 out of 83 prospective candidates,including Biya and former government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary.

LONDON: A group of more than 50 charities and lawyers has urged the UK government to let Afghans granted asylum bring their families with them after their identities were revealed in a data breach.

The leak in February 2022 saw the details of more than 100,000 Afghans who worked with the British accidentally shared online by a Ministry of Defence employee.

They included people who had worked as interpreters for the British Army, and others who applied for asylum under the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

The leak was hidden by the government through a legal mechanism called a superinjunction, making reporting it in the press illegal. The superinjunction was lifted by a court last month.

ARAP and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme do not allow applicants to sponsor relatives to come to the UK.

The group of charities, including Asylum Aid and modern slavery charity Kalayaan, wrote to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper asking her “to prevent the worst possible consequences of the data leak becoming a dire reality” and help take the relatives of those whose identities were leaked out of Afghanistan.

“The UK government has a moral responsibility to the Afghan people who continue to suffer, including now as a result of the data leak and have no choice but to seek safety elsewhere.

“The 2022 data breach directly exposed Afghans still in the country to a risk of reprisals they were not even aware of, and the High Court, in lifting the superinjunction, recognised that its imposition may have increased the risks these people face.”

The signatories added: “Poor decision-making could yet again have exposed Afghans to serious harm, with many of these people having clear UK family ties.”

They said: “It is essential that those who were resettled under ARAP and ACRS are able to live in safety and are given a fair opportunity to reunite with their families.”

Some routes are open to resettled Afghans to reunite in the UK with relatives, but the signatories said these involve “extremely costly application fees and require copious, specific documentation.”

Wendy Chamberlain MP, the Liberal Democrat chair of the all-parliamentary group for Afghan women, told The Independent: “There is already anecdotal evidence of reprisals on family members by the Taliban — the Home Office has no time to waste if the government wants to prevent the worst possible consequences of the data leak becoming a dire reality.

“The Home Office desperately needs to take a pragmatic and compassionate approach to allowing Afghans resettled in the UK to be reunited safely with their families.

“It is clear that these schemes have been seriously mis-handled, culminating in the recent exposure of the 2022 data leak.”

James Tullett, CEO of the charity Ramfel, said: “The government has acknowledged that the people they have resettled need protection, and yet this offer of support comes with the heavy price of separation from family.

“Allowing Afghan families to reunite won’t solve all the problems associated with the data leak, but it will make a monumental difference for the affected families.”