Cameroon goes to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election with Paul Biya, already the world’s oldest head of state on the age of 92, the favorite to win an eighth time period in energy within the central African nation.
A fractured opposition of 11 candidates is standing in opposition to Biya, who, regardless of his superior age and declining well being, has dismissed requires him to retire.
“Our candidate is in nice form … and he’s able to persevering with what he has began,” Grégoire Owona, the labour minister and the ruling celebration’s secretary normal, informed French radio RFI in late September.
Most of the 7.8 million Cameroonians eligible to vote can bear in mind no chief aside from Biya, who has held on to the presidency with an iron fist since 1982.
The vote is going down in opposition to the backdrop of political stagnation, a value of dwelling disaster and social unrest. Opposition events have accused the electoral fee, Elections Cameroon, of being subservient to the ruling celebration, and essentially the most credible opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto, has had his candidacy barred by the courts.
Different candidates embrace former ministers Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who just lately defected from the presidential camp and has gathered a number of thousand folks at conferences across the nation, and Bello Bouba Maigari, who was Biya’s first prime minister in 1982. Observers say their particular person campaigns lacked the cohesion essential to mount a big problem to Biya’s long-standing rule.
Cameroon faces important socioeconomic challenges; a 3rd of the inhabitants lives on lower than $2 (£1.50) a day, youth unemployment is rampant, and lots of younger folks have expressed disillusionment with the electoral course of, citing an absence of financial alternatives and political illustration.
Supporter of opposition politician Issa Tchiroma Bakary, one of many candidates contesting Sunday’s ballot. {Photograph}: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
Voter turnout has declined dramatically through the years, exacerbated by ongoing conflicts with jihadists within the Far North area and anglophone separatists within the west.
The latter disaster, which started in 2017, has led to 1000’s of deaths within the nation’s two English-speaking areas and forcibly displaced over 700,000 folks.
Kah Wallah, the chief of the Cameroon Individuals’s celebration and founding father of the Stand Up For Cameroon motion, stated the anglophone disaster is without doubt one of the explanation why the motion has not supported elections since 2018. “We nonetheless imagine it’s unconscionable for the Biya regime to go to elections with out making certain the safety of residents in #NOSO,” she stated, referring to a standard abbreviation for Cameroon’s anglophone North-West and South-West areas.
The federal government has been criticised for its heavy handed response, which has left many within the anglophone areas feeling marginalised and open to boycotting the vote.
Biya, who isn’t seen in public, held his first and solely marketing campaign rally on Tuesday. Addressing a crowd of supporters at a stadium within the Far North city of Maroua, he promised to step up safety within the area, curb youth unemployment, and enhance highway infrastructure and social facilities if reelected.
“I’m nicely conscious of the issues that concern you, I do know the unfulfilled expectations that make you doubt the longer term,” Biya stated in his speech. “Based mostly by myself expertise, I can guarantee you that these issues aren’t insurmountable.”
This 12 months’s election cycle has featured putting appeals for him to step apart. First got here the Catholic archbishop Samuel Kleda, who went on French radio final Christmas to say it was “not reasonable” for Biya to maintain doing the job. Then got here the defections of Tchiroma and Maigari, each of whom overtly challenged Biya’s health to guide.
Lastly, the president’s daughter Brenda Biya, 27, stated on TikTok final month that her father “has made too many individuals undergo” and urged Cameroonians to not vote for him. She later recanted, however the put up continues to flow into extensively amongst Biya’s detractors.
Theophile, an artist within the financial capital, Douala, referred to as the vote a “rip-off”. The 24-year-old had hoped to vote for Kamto, who got here second to Biya within the 2018 election. “So long as the system stays in place, there may be nothing that may be achieved. There needs to be a change,” he stated.
Agence France-Presse and Related Press contributed to this report
