Cameroon opposition candidate Tchiroma declares victory in presidential vote

Cameroonian former minister-turned-opposition challenger Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed election victory on Tuesday against incumbent President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 43 years, although official results for the weekend vote are not expected for two weeks.

Biya, aged 92, the world’s oldest serving head of state, is vying for an eighth term to extend his decades in power.

But former employment minister 79-year-old Tchiroma generated unexpected enthusiasm among voters in the central African nation.

Supporters on both sides are claiming victory based on images circulating on social media of blackboards and papers tallying the results.

“Our victory is clear. It must be respected,” Tchiroma, who until June was part of the government, declared in a video on Facebook on Tuesday.

He urged the government to “accept the truth of the ballot box” or “plunge the country into turmoil”.

“The people have chosen,” he said, promising to publish detailed election results, region by region.

While it is permitted to publish tally sheets from individual polling stations, it is illegal to announce the overall result of the vote before the Constitutional Council.

“This is the red line that must not be crossed”, Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji told a press conference late on Sunday.

The authorities have not announced the turnout or the exact date when the official outcome of the election will be declared, other than that it is due by October 26.

The delay has fuelled fears of fraud in favour of Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and has won every election in the past 20 years with more than 70 percent of the vote.

In the 2018 presidential election, opposition challenger Maurice Kamto declared himself winner the day after the vote.

He was subsequently arrested. His supporters’ rallies were dispersed with tear gas and water cannon and dozens were detained. Some are still in jail.

– ‘Clear message’ –

In his Facebook video, which lasted nearly five minutes, an emotional Tchiroma said he had achieved a “crushing victory”, which he said represented “a clear message of sanction for the current regime and a vote for immediate change”.

Biya faced 11 opponents, including Tchiroma, who resigned from the government in June to join the opposition after 20 years at Biya’s side.

As the candidate for the Union for Change 2025 — a coalition of minority opposition parties and civil society groups — he became the leading challenger after Kamto was barred from standing by the Constitutional Council.

Tchiroma drew several thousand people to his campaign rallies across the country, where four in 10 people were living below the poverty line in 2024, according to the World Bank.

Cameroonian political scientist Stephane Akoa told AFP before the vote that the campaign had been “much livelier than usual” and the vote was “therefore more likely to throw up surprises”.

At the close of polling on Sunday evening, supporters in a district of the capital Yaounde known as a Tchiroma stronghold, chanted “Goodbye Paul Biya. Tchiroma is coming.”

Biya is only the second head of state to lead Cameroon since independence from France in 1960.

He has ruled with an iron fist, repressing all political and armed opposition, and holding onto power through social upheaval, economic disparity and separatist violence.

Tchiroma’s election manifesto promised a transition period of three to five years to rebuild the country, which he said Biya had destroyed.

AFP

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