Vote counting is under way in Cameroon following Sunday’s presidential election in which incumbent Paul Biya is seeking to extend his 43 years in power.

Biya, who at 92 is the world’s oldest head of state, is being challenged by nine candidates. If he wins, it will be his eighth consecutive term in office, with the next election due in 2032.

Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said that voting took place “hitch-free” across the country. But there was a call for a boycott in the English-speaking regions in the west and there were reports of clashes in the north.

The final result should be known within 15 days of the vote.

In the run-up to the election there were complaints from the opposition of attempts to suppress their support.

In August, the Constitutional Council barred 71-year old Maurice Kamto, widely viewed as the main challenger, from taking part.

On Sunday, angry supporters of leading opposition candidate and former Biya ally, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, 76, took to the streets in his stronghold of Garoua. They clashed with security forces, who fired tear gas, after his residence was cordoned off.

Earlier in the day, Tchiroma had said he was the subject of threats.

“It is not Tchiroma who is the problem, he told reporters, adding that he “places himself under the protection of God and the Cameroonian people.”

“I am at home; I will not move. If they intend to come and take me away from home, I will not move,” he declared.

Despite this Interior Minister Nji said the polls were held without major incidents in all 10 regions of the country.

He did not comment on the situation in Garoua but rather repeated previous claims that some presidential candidates were planning to publish the results of the election ahead of the official declaration.

Nji described this as a major red line, threatening action against anyone suspected of breaking the law.

In the two restive Anglophone regions, where separatists attempted to bar residents from voting, some did turn out at the polling stations. But many others stayed away for fear of reprisals.

Source: BBC

Bello Bouba Maigari is counting on being offered the presidency as a compromise to wedge off Issa Tchiroma Bakary, if the latter wins. “Bello is hoping to be Tshisekedied and Tchiroma Fayulued”, said an authoritative source associated to Bello’s campaign, in a good position to be believed.

The source was referring to the outcome of the presidential election of December 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo where it emerged that Martin Fayulu, the opposition consensual candidate backed by disqualified credible candidates including Jean Pierre Bemba and Moise Katumbi, was the actual winner of the polls but Felix Tshisekedi, who came second by verified election results, was declared the winner because outgoing president, Joseph Kabila was uncomfortable about handing power to a radical and authentic opposition leader.

According to a TV5Monde (Information.TV5Monde.Com) report on 15 January 2019, titled “Elections en RDC : Martin Fayulu est-il le vrai vainqueur ?”, three authoritative international news outlets, The Financial Times, RFI and TV5Monde in collaboration with a DRC study group, obtained documents that attested to the fact that both the Congolese electoral commission and the Congolese Episcopal Conference (Bishops) have documented proof that Fayulu won the election.

Speaking to Cameroon Intelligence Report senior correspondent and a couple of other journalists in Yaoundé on 7 October, our source Bello was not going to agree to a coalition with Tchiroma because of the Tshisekedi/Fayulu calculation which he believes the regime in Yaoundé would resort to if it became evident they would lose the 12 October presidential election.

Our source, who is familiar with Cameroon’s early multiparty politics and connected at very high level in Cameroon and across Africa and the world, said he has been having conversations with well-placed personalities in Yaoundé and drew anecdotes from Cameroon’s 1992 post-election deadlock when certain credible national and international organizations said opposition SDF candidate, John Fru Ndi, defeated incumbent Paul Biya though the Supreme Court declared Biya as the winner.

“I’m aware of a conversation between then Minister of Territorial Administration, Gilbert Andze Tsoungui and Barrister Ben Muna where Tsoungui told Muna, ‘Do you think we can hand this country to a book seller who speaks neither French nor English? If it were you, we’d be sure the country would be in safer hands and we would tell President Biya that he has lost and there is nothing we can do’,” said our source.

Fru Ndi was famously referred to at the time as an illiterate book seller because he campaigned around the country in Pidgin English, widely understood around the country as a lingua franca, in a calculated quest to be understood by all and sundry.

Ben Muna was a former Cameroon Bar Council chairman (Batonnier), bilingual and son of former National Assembly speaker, Solomon Tandeng Muna. Though a fiery critic of the regime from his Bar position, breaking the government’s initial resistance to multiparty politics and later a topnotch member of the opposition SDF, he was considered within certain circles as someone the regime could accommodate, at the worst.

“The people in Yaoundé are more comfortable with Bello as a prince of the system from Ahidjo’s time,” said our source. “They are not comfortable with Tchiroma. They may tamper with the results and place Tchiroma third. But what I see in the crowds turning out for Tchiroma is an uprising or possibly worse if certain institutions decide to step in as has been seen in other places.”

From an early semblance of parity perceived from turnouts at rallies by Bello and Tchiroma ahead of the launch of official campaigns, Tchiroma clearly emerged as the frontrunner throughout the 15-day campaign, pulling unprecedented huge and energized crowds of supporters all over the country.

Even in Garoua, turnout at Bello’s rallies regressed to near nothing. “Bello’s rallies looked like the installation of subsection excos,” said a journalist covering both Bello and Tchiroma campaigns.

By Franklin Sone Bayen on special assignment in Garoua

The world’s oldest head of state – 92-year-old Paul Biya – has promised Cameroon’s electorate “the best is still to come” as he seeks his eighth consecutive presidential term on Sunday.

The nonagenarian has already been in power since 1982 – another seven-year mandate could see him rule for 50 years until he will be almost 100.

He defied widespread calls to step down and has been criticised for only showing up for one rally, spending most of the campaign period on a 10-day private trip to Europe.

A backlash over his reliance on an AI-generated campaign video, as his opponents actively wooed voters on the ground, saw him rush north on his return home.

In the vote-rich city of Maroua on Tuesday he addressed crowds of his party supporters – reaching out in particular to women and young people, promising to prioritise their plight in his next mandate.

“I will keep my word,” he insisted, urging them to “give me your valuable support once again”.

But political analyst Immanuel Wanah tells the BBC that Biya’s primary focus since coming to power has been to stay in power, “often at the expense of efforts to enhance the living conditions of the country’s citizens”.

It is a view echoed by Dr Tilarius Atia, another political analyst, who puts this survivalist mindset down to an abortive coup against Biya in 1984.

It means that for the vast majority of the population, Biya is the only president they have known – more than 60% of Cameroon’s 30 million people are below the age of 25.

Young political activist Marie Flore Mboussi is desperate for “new blood” as she believes “longevity in power inevitably leads to a kind of laziness”.

“After 43 years, the people are tired,” she tells the BBC.

The presidential election comes amid growing concerns about inflation, security challenges, poor social services, corruption and unemployment.

Youth unemployment has been a particular talking point for most of the candidates running in the election.

Michel Mvondo/BBC

Young people are more inclined to emigrate abroad because they tell themselves that inside the country, they do not have the possibility of becoming somebody”Vanina Nzekui, a 26-year-old graduate

Nearly 40% of young Cameroonians between the ages of 15 and 35 are unemployed, with 23% of young graduates facing challenges in obtaining formal employment, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“Young people are more inclined to emigrate abroad because they tell themselves that inside the country, they do not have the possibility of becoming somebody,” 26-old-year graduate Vanina Nzekui tells the BBC.

“They tell themselves that all positions are occupied by older people,” she says, adding that this comes at the cost of using their skills to help develop the country.

But Aziseh Mbi, 23, believes age should not be a criterion for leadership.

In Biya’s case, the civil society activist says, the president has been able to do “significant things,” citing several youth initiatives.

Beyond youth unemployment, the electoral process has also stirred controversy, especially with the exclusion of Maurice Kamto from the presidential race.

In July the electoral body barred the 71-year-old opposition leader from running because a rival faction of the party that had endorsed him presented someone else as a candidate.

His exclusion, confirmed by the Constitutional Council, was widely criticised as a ploy to prevent any strong challenge to President Biya.

After coming second in the 2018 presidential election, Kamto claimed victory and organised street protests.

“The exclusion of Prof Kamto waters down the legitimacy of our democracy because we should have been fair enough to allow for everybody to partake,” says Dr Atia.

Mr Wanah agrees that the absence of the country’s main opposition figure “reinforces the perception that truly fair elections cannot take place in Cameroon”.

Twelve candidates were approved to contest for the country’s top job, including Issa Tchiroma Bakary and Bello Bouba Maigari – both former Biya allies from the north of the country. They resigned from their ministerial positions in government to take on their boss.

Lawmaker Cabral Libii, chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party Joshua Osih and Patricia Tomaïno Ndam Njoya – the lone female candidate – are also in the race.

At the launch of the election campaign, two aspirants, including renowned anti-corruption lawyer Akere Muna, withdrew their candidacies to support Maigari of the NUDP party. This means 10 people will now compete for the presidency.

Prior to the poll – which will only be a single-round vote as the person with the most votes will win – there had been widespread calls for the opposition to present a single candidate to challenge Biya, who has never lost an election.

Tchiroma Bakary has secured the support of the Union for Change, a coalition of more than 50 political groups and civil society organisations who presented him as the opposition’s consensus candidate.

But the initiative has failed to gain unanimity, with others refusing to rally behind him.

Kamto said he had held talks with some aspirants, including the two northern figures Tchiroma Bakary and Maigari, encouraging them to unite. As neither seemed ready to step down, he urged Cameroonians to vote for whomever they preferred.

Dr Atia reckons the failure to endorse one candidate under a single coalition will cost the opposition at the ballot box.

On the campaign trail, 76-year-old Tchiroma Bakary, a former government spokesperson, has been pulling big crowds – with some analysts positioning the Cameroon National Salvation Front party leader as Biya’s main challenger.

On Sunday, thousands of supporters waited for hours in the rain to see him in the economic capital Douala.

He has promised to reform the system of which he was a part for two decades.

Despite Tchiroma Bakary’s support base in the north, analysts say Biya is likely to overpower him and the other opposition candidates.

“President Biya just needs a slim majority to win the election, and I see him winning despite the efforts being made by the opposition,” says Dr Atia.

In Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West regions, where a long-running separatist conflict continues, an election boycott lockdown has been imposed, paralysing business activities, movement and education.

The separatists who have imposed it have threatened to target anyone who does vote.

“We have seen people [who] have been pulled out of their homes and slaughtered in cold blood, before, during, and even well after [previous] elections when they are identified,” Samah Abang-Mugwa, a resident of one of the Anglophone regions, tells the BBC – adding that he will not risk casting his ballot.

Since 2017, those seeking to create a breakaway state have been fighting government forces. They are angered by what they see as the marginalisation of Cameroon’s minority Anglophone community by the Francophone-dominated government.

The conflict has so far killed at least 6,000 people and forced nearly half a million others from their homes, according to the UN.

According to civil society activist Abine Ayah, the likely exclusion of much of the English-speaking community could undermine the legitimacy of the election.

Although Biya says his government has made significant efforts to resolve the conflict, his opponents in the presidential race continue to criticise his handling of the situation.

After Sunday’s vote, the Constitutional Council has 15 days to announce the results.

The interior minister has already warned that no candidate is allowed to declare victory beforehand.

Paul Atanga Nji made the comments on the eve of the last day of campaigning.

“Those who will attempt to announce results of the presidential election or any self-proclaimed victory in violation of the laws of the republic would have crossed the red line and should be ready to face the retaliatory measures commensurate to their crime.”

Culled from the BBC

Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla who campaigned with Issa Tchiroma Bakary yesterday in Guider and Garoua in the North Region, says the lead candidate in the presidential election told him he would release Anglophone detainees within three months if he were elected president on 12 October.

“He assured me that within the next three months he will release all our brothers in detention,” said the human rights lawyer and political activist who flew to Garoua on yesterday morning and joined Tchiroma on the campaign trail.

Hundreds of Anglophone activists, including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Wilfred Tassang and eight other members of the “interim government” of the self-proclaimed Ambazonia republic, are serving life jail terms and other sentences. Many others are still awaiting trial.

Agbor Balla was the leader of the Anglophone Consortium that triggered the present Anglophone crisis in 2016. Following his arrest in early 2017, the crisis that began with demands for safeguards on Anglophone legal and education systems, snowballed into the present Ambazonia armed struggle under other leaders.

Agbor Balla declared his endorsement of Tchiroma in a statement issued from Garoua yesterday, saying, “Mr. Tchiroma’s recent public apology to Anglophones was not merely symbolic; it was a courageous and humane act of leadership. In acknowledging the pain and marginalization that many of our citizens have endured, he demonstrated humility and moral clarity; two qualities rarely seen in our political culture. It was a gesture that transcended politics, speaking directly to the conscience of our nation.

“Beyond apology, Mr. Tchiroma has articulated a bold vision for a transitional government, a peaceful and inclusive process aimed at rebuilding the foundations of our Republic. His proposal for a limited transitional mandate reflects the understanding that Cameroon must first heal, reconcile, and reform its institutions before it can truly prosper.

“My endorsement of Mr. Tchiroma is therefore not partisan. It is anchored in principle; the principle that our country’s salvation lies in dialogue, inclusion, and the moral courage to admit past wrongs and chart a new path forward.”

Agbor Balla later joined Tchiroma at campaign events in Guider and Garoua, both in Tchiroma’s home North Region.  Agbor Balla summarized his message at both campaign outings thus: “In both Guider and Garoua, my message was clear: …the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

Speaking to me in Garoua after a day on the soapbox with the leading candidate in the election, Agbor Balla said, “I campaigned with Minister Tchiroma because I believe that the future of Cameroon must be built on dialogue, inclusion, and collaboration rather than division. Our country has suffered too long from polarization, mistrust, and exclusion.

“My decision was guided by the conviction that change will not come from isolation or rigid partisanship, but from engaging constructively even with those who may not share all our views. We may differ on certain issues, but we share a desire to see a peaceful, united, and democratic Cameroon.

“For me, standing alongside him was a statement that politics should be about ideas and the future of our nation, not enmity. Cameroon needs bridges, not walls.”                                                                                                                                       

Asked whether resolution of the Anglophone problem was part his discussions with Tchiroma, Agbor Balla said, “Yes, we discussed the Anglophone crisis, because it remains one of the most painful and unresolved issues in our country. Tchiroma has expressed his commitment to pursuing dialogue, justice, and reconciliation as the only sustainable path forward.”

By Franklin Sone Bayen on special assignment in Garoua

Cameroon’s electoral body Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) said Friday that 8,010,464 people have registered to vote in the country’s upcoming presidential election.

The voters include 3,716,567 women and 4,293,897 men, ELECAM said in a statement, adding that the vote will take place on Sunday at over 31,000 polling stations nationwide. Twelve candidates, including incumbent President Paul Biya, are competing in this election.

More than 6,500,000 people voted in the country’s last presidential election in 2018.

In a press conference on Friday, Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji warned that plans to disturb the poll “will not be tolerated and will face the full force of the law.”

Source: Xinhuanet

NUDP SG, Flambeau Ngayap suggests coalition still possible even this weekend

Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s vehicle drove out of the venue of what should have been his final rally in the Far North Region at about 7 :30pm this Thursday, abandoning thousands of supporters at the venue. Party officials say his motorcade left because of crowd disorder.

The Marche La Comice, which is now a cattle market in Maroua was filling up with supporters and FSNC militants since the afternoon, though the party’s candidate only arrived after nightfall. A security cordon put in place by local party officials and volunteers, and rehearsed to ensure Tchiroma was not mobbed as has been seen elsewhere, was broken by excited supporters when candidate’s motorcade drove into the venue. Security was overwhelmed.

For about an hour, Tchiroma waited in his car for calm to return to permit him to step out and mount the podium. When he stood up to face the crowd through the slide roof-top of his vehicle, supporters went wild with excitement. The more security pushed the crowds back, the more they surged forward. The candidate was forced to return into his car.

At about 7:30pm, Tchiroma’s vehicle slowly drove out of the venue without a word about what next: event posted to the next day or definitely cancelled? 

Fight for the Northern Regions

Tchiroma arrived in Maroua this Thursday from Mora and other parts of the Far North Region where he campaigned since he returned to the northern regions on Tuesday. He had campaigned in the West, Bamenda, Buea, Limbe and Douala last weekend before, pulling mammoth crowds everywhere.

His northern rival, Bello Bouba Maigari, who could become his ally at the end of the campaigns if declarations, even hushed, by certain party, can be taken seriously, has also been criss-crossing the northern regions, especially the vote-rich Far North, both men about on each other’s tracks.

This week of campaigning by both men looks like they are in a dog fight for dominance in their traditional fief. An observer in Maroua said yesterday, “The way Bello and Tchiroma are focused on the northern regions, especially the Far North, it looks like they are campaigning for local elections, for whose party would win more parliamentary and municipal council seats.”

Reacting, a journalist covering both campaigns said, the reason is likely because of the huge northern vote because, though the Far North Region alone accounts for over 16 percent of the national electorate, second to the Centre Region, the three northern regions together hold over 33 percent of the electorate and have similar voting patterns. Hence, “who the three northern regions vote for, could emerge the winner in this election,” the journalist said.

Coalition Still Possible?

Political commentators across the country and on social media are still hopeful that Bello and Tchiroma can pull together even at the last minute, though a statement issued by Bello’s NUDP on Wednesday, expressed bitterness over a remark on Monday by Tchiroma over Equinoxe TV, decribing Bello as a political lightweight. That notwithstanding, a comment by NUDP’s Secretary General Pierre Flambeau on Wednesday over Equinoxce TV might has rekindled hopes of a possible normalization of relations between the two northern rivals, paving the way for a last minute coalition. Ngayap said he did not want to divulge behind the scenes actions.

Bello Bouba is expected to hold a campaign rally in Maroua tomorrow, before moving back home to Garoua for his closing rallies, like Tchiroma. All eyes are on Garoua this weekend for the last ditch hope of a coalition between the two northern heavyweights.

By Franklin Sone Bayen on special assignment in Maroua