Cameroonian former minister-turned-opposition challenger Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed election victory on Tuesday towards incumbent President Paul Biya, who has been in energy for 43 years, though official outcomes for the weekend vote will not be anticipated for 2 weeks.
Biya, aged 92, the world’s oldest serving head of state, is vying for an eighth time period to increase his many years in energy.
However former employment minister 79-year-old Tchiroma generated sudden enthusiasm amongst voters within the central African nation.
Supporters on either side are claiming victory based mostly on photos circulating on social media of blackboards and papers tallying the outcomes.
“Our victory is obvious. It have to be revered,” Tchiroma, who till June was a part of the federal government, declared in a video on Fb on Tuesday.
He urged the federal government to “settle for the reality of the poll field” or “plunge the nation into turmoil”.
“The folks have chosen,” he stated, promising to publish detailed election outcomes, area by area.
Whereas it’s permitted to publish tally sheets from particular person polling stations, it’s unlawful to announce the general results of the vote earlier than the Constitutional Council.
“That is the crimson line that should not be crossed”, Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji advised a press convention late on Sunday.
The authorities haven’t introduced the turnout or the precise date when the official end result of the election can be declared, apart from that it’s due by October 26.
The delay has fuelled fears of fraud in favour of Biya, who has been in energy since 1982 and has gained each election up to now 20 years with greater than 70 % of the vote.
Within the 2018 presidential election, opposition challenger Maurice Kamto declared himself winner the day after the vote.
He was subsequently arrested. His supporters’ rallies had been dispersed with tear fuel and water cannon and dozens had been detained. Some are nonetheless in jail.
– ‘Clear message’ –
In his Fb video, which lasted practically 5 minutes, an emotional Tchiroma stated he had achieved a “crushing victory”, which he stated represented “a transparent message of sanction for the present regime and a vote for fast change”.
Biya confronted 11 opponents, together with Tchiroma, who resigned from the federal government in June to hitch the opposition after 20 years at Biya’s aspect.
Because the candidate for the Union for Change 2025 — a coalition of minority opposition events and civil society teams — he turned the main challenger after Kamto was barred from standing by the Constitutional Council.
Tchiroma drew a number of thousand folks to his marketing campaign rallies throughout the nation, the place 4 in 10 folks had been residing under the poverty line in 2024, in response to the World Financial institution.
Cameroonian political scientist Stephane Akoa advised AFP earlier than the vote that the marketing campaign had been “a lot livelier than ordinary” and the vote was “subsequently extra more likely to throw up surprises”.
On the shut of polling on Sunday night, supporters in a district of the capital Yaounde often called a Tchiroma stronghold, chanted “Goodbye Paul Biya. Tchiroma is coming.”
Biya is just the second head of state to steer Cameroon since independence from France in 1960.
He has dominated with an iron fist, repressing all political and armed opposition, and holding onto energy by way of social upheaval, financial disparity and separatist violence.
Tchiroma’s election manifesto promised a transition interval of three to 5 years to rebuild the nation, which he stated Biya had destroyed.
AFP
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