92-year-old Paul Biya wins re-election as Cameroon’s President, as opposition decries foul play
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has been re-elected to an eighth term with 53.66% of the vote, according to official results on Monday, even while the opposition candidate had earlier claimed victory.
The Constitutional Council said on Monday that the 92-year-old incumbent had secured 53.66 percent of the vote in the October 12 election while the opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma received 35.19 percent.
Tchiroma had written on Facebook that gunfire was being directed at civilians gathered outside his home in Garoua.
Opposition protesters have had several clashes with security forces over the past week, after partial results which emerged through local sources, placed Biya at an advantageous position to clinch victory in the presidential election which held on October 12.
92-year-old Biya who is the world’s longest-serving ruler, assumed power in 1982 and has held a tight grip on it ever since, discarding the presidential term limit in 2008 and winning reelection with good margins. This new seven-year-term could keep him in power until 2032, close to his 100th birthday.
Announcing the results, Clement Atangana, President of the Constitutional Council declared: “Hereby declared elected President of the Republic, having obtained the majority of the votes cast, the candidate, Biya, Paul”.
The opposition candidate Tchiroma was a former government spokesperson and employment Minister in his late 70s who fell out with Biya earlier this year, mounting a campaign that drew large crowds and endorsements from a coalition of civic groups and opposition parties.
Tchiroma, having declared himself winner earlier, insisted that the official result would be “tainted” and “not reflective of the people’s will”, though the government had rejected the opposition’s accusations of irregularities.
