Yaound©: Cameroon's President Paul Biya has been re-elected for an eighth term at the age of 92, the country's Constitutional Court announced on Monday. The world's oldest head of state secured more than 53% of the vote, marking his worst electoral performance since 1992.
According to Ghana News Agency, former minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary finished in second place with approximately 35% of the votes, as per official figures. Tchiroma has rejected the election results and urged Cameroonians to protest the outcome. In response, demonstrations erupted in several cities on Sunday, leading to the arrest of dozens of Tchiroma's supporters.
Authorities reported that four people were killed in the port city of Douala. Meanwhile, several opposition candidates filed appeals citing electoral irregularities, but all were dismissed by the court. Elections in Cameroon are widely perceived as unfair. Biya, who has been president since 1982 after serving as prime minister from 1975, ranks as one of the world's longest-serving leaders, second only to the dictator of neighboring Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Cameroon, with a population of around 30 million, has about 8 million registered voters. The country was once a German colony, later divided between France and Great Britain following World War I. Since 2017, a conflict between the French-speaking majority and separatists in the English-speaking regions has resulted in at least 6,500 deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands. Additionally, Islamist terrorists continue to conduct attacks in the northern part of the country.
