He rose to power in 1982 and is set to serve an eighth consecutive term of seven years after receiving 55 percent of the total presidential votes cast.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon, October 29th –President Paul Biya of Cameroon has been declared the winner of the presidential polls amidst protests across the central African nation.
Biya, 92 years, whose election win was finally confirmed by Cameroon’s Constitutional Council on Monday, is Africa’s oldest and among the world’s longest ruling leaders. He has spent 43 years, nearly half his life, in office.
Biya has ruled Cameroon, a country of 30 million people, as president since 1982 through elections that political opponents said have been “stolen”. Opposition supporters claim the results of the election have been rigged by Biya and his supporters in power.
In the lead-up to the announcement of the result, the current government rejected these accusations and urged people to wait for the result. The Union for Change is a coalition of opposition parties that formed in September to counter Biya’s dominance of the political landscape.
The forum brought together more than two dozen political parties and civil society groups in opposition to Biya with an aim to field a consensus candidate. In September, the group claimed Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon party had won the race.
Tchiroma, 76, was formerly part of Biya’s government, holding several ministerial positions over 16 years. He also served as government spokesperson during the years of fighting the Boko Haram armed group, and he defended the army when it stood accused of killing civilians.
He was once regarded as a member of Biya’s “old guard” but has campaigned on a promise of “change”. Tchiroma claimed that he had won the election with 55 percent of the vote. More than 8 million people were registered to vote in the election.
On Monday, however, the Constitutional Council announced Biya as the winner with 53.66 percent of the vote with Tchiroma as the runner-up with 35.19 percent. Announcing the results on Monday, the council’s leader, Clement Atangana, said the electoral process was “peaceful” and criticised the opposition for “anticipating the result”.
The president, who has clinched wins in eight heavily contested elections held every seven years, is renowned for his absenteeism as he reportedly spends extended periods away from the country. He and his entourage are often away on private or medical treatment trips to Switzerland.
An investigation in 2018 by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found Biya had spent at least 1,645 days (nearly four and a half years) in the European country, excluding official visits, since being in power.
Before the election, the Constitutional Council barred another popular opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, from running.
Some opposition leaders and their supporters have been detained by police on a slew of charges, including plotting violence. The government responded with arrests and internet blackouts, and the situation eventually built up to an armed separatist struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia.
