{"id":493057,"date":"2025-10-12T07:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/493057\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T07:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:44:12","slug":"cameroons-92-year-old-president-set-for-another-term-as-country-goes-to-polls-cameroon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/493057\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon\u2019s 92-year-old president set for another term as country goes to polls | Cameroon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cameroon goes to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election with Paul Biya, already the world\u2019s oldest head of state<\/a> at the age of 92, the favourite to win an eighth term in power in the central African country.<\/p>\n

A fractured opposition of 11 candidates is standing against Biya, who, despite his advanced age and declining health, has dismissed calls for him to retire.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur candidate is in great shape … and he is capable of continuing what he has started,\u201d Gr\u00e9goire Owona, the labour minister and the ruling party\u2019s secretary general, told French radio RFI <\/a>in late September.<\/p>\n

Many of the 7.8 million Cameroonians eligible to vote can remember no leader other than Biya, who has held on to the presidency with an iron fist since 1982.<\/p>\n

The vote is taking place against the backdrop of political stagnation, a cost of living crisis and social unrest. Opposition parties have accused the electoral commission, Elections Cameroon, of being subservient to the ruling party, and the most credible opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto, has had his candidacy barred by the courts.<\/p>\n

Other candidates include former ministers Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who recently defected from the presidential camp and has gathered several thousand people at meetings around the country, and Bello Bouba Maigari, who was Biya\u2019s first prime minister in 1982. Observers say their individual campaigns lacked the cohesion necessary to mount a significant challenge to Biya\u2019s long-standing rule.<\/p>\n

Cameroon faces significant socioeconomic challenges; a third of the population lives on less than $2 (\u00a31.50) a day, youth unemployment is rampant, and many young people have expressed disillusionment with the electoral process, citing a lack of economic opportunities and political representation.<\/p>\n

Supporter of opposition politician Issa Tchiroma Bakary, one of the candidates contesting Sunday\u2019s poll. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Voter turnout has declined dramatically over the years, exacerbated by ongoing conflicts with jihadists in the Far North region and anglophone separatists<\/a> in the west.<\/p>\n

The latter crisis, which began in 2017, has led to thousands of deaths in the country\u2019s two English-speaking regions and forcibly displaced over 700,000 people.<\/p>\n

Kah Wallah, the leader of the Cameroon People\u2019s party and founder of the Stand Up For Cameroon movement, said the anglophone crisis is one of the reasons why the movement has not supported elections since 2018. \u201cWe still believe it is unconscionable for the Biya regime to go to elections without ensuring the security of citizens in #NOSO,\u201d she said, referring to a common abbreviation for Cameroon\u2019s anglophone North-West and South-West regions.<\/p>\n

The government has been criticised for its heavy handed response, which has left many in the anglophone regions feeling marginalised and open to boycotting the vote.<\/p>\n

Biya, who is rarely seen in public, held his first and only campaign rally on Tuesday. Addressing a crowd of supporters at a stadium in the Far North town of Maroua, he promised to step up security in the region, curb youth unemployment, and improve road infrastructure and social amenities if reelected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am well aware of the problems that concern you, I know the unfulfilled expectations that make you doubt the future,\u201d Biya said in his speech. \u201cBased on my own experience, I can assure you that these problems are not insurmountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s election cycle has featured striking appeals for him to step aside. First came the Catholic archbishop Samuel Kleda, who went on French radio last Christmas to say it was \u201cnot realistic\u201d for Biya to keep doing the job. Then came the defections of Tchiroma and Maigari, both of whom openly challenged Biya\u2019s fitness to lead.<\/p>\n

Finally, the president\u2019s daughter Brenda Biya, 27, said on TikTok last month that her father \u201chas made too many people suffer\u201d and urged Cameroonians not to vote for him. She later recanted, but the post continues to circulate widely among Biya\u2019s detractors.<\/p>\n

Theophile, an artist in the economic capital, Douala, called the vote a \u201cscam\u201d. The 24-year-old had hoped to vote for Kamto, who came second to Biya in the 2018 election. \u201cAs long as the system remains in place, there is nothing that can be done. There has to be a change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameroon goes to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election with Paul Biya, already the world\u2019s oldest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-493057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115360082421612178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}