{"id":337842,"date":"2025-10-28T07:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T07:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/337842\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T07:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T07:07:15","slug":"paul-biya-worlds-oldest-president-wins-cameroon-election-at-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/337842\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Biya, world’s oldest president, wins Cameroon election at 92"},"content":{"rendered":"

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) \u2014 The world\u2019s oldest president, Cameroon<\/a> \u2018s 92-year-old Paul Biya, has won election again, the country\u2019s top court said Monday, after days of protesters\u2019 clashes with security forces left at least four people dead as opposition supporters demanded credible results.<\/p>\n

Biya has led the central African nation since 1982, ruling longer than most citizens have been alive. Over 70% of the population of almost 30 million is below 35. The Oct. 12 election has displayed growing tensions between Africa\u2019s youth and its many aging leaders.<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Council said Biya received 53.66% of votes while former ally Issa Tchiroma Bakary got 35.19%. The turnout was 57.7%.<\/p>\n

In a social media post after the announcement, Tchiroma asserted that security forces had shot at civilians, killing two in his hometown of Garoua.<\/p>\n

\u201cShooting point-blank at your own brothers \u2014 I can\u2019t help but wonder if you\u2019re mercenaries,\u201d he posted. \u201cKill me if you want, but I will liberate this country by any means necessary. What blatant impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tchiroma had claimed victory days ago, citing results he said were collated by his party. Biya\u2019s party members dismissed the claim.<\/p>\n

Biya in a statement on Monday said his \u201cfirst thoughts are with all those who have unnecessarily lost their lives, as well with their families, as a result of the post-election violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing will change\u2019<\/p>\n

Biya\u2019s decision to seek another term angered youth and the opposition, which has accused him of having a hand in the disqualification of his strongest rival<\/a> and using \u201cstate machinery\u201d to manipulate the election.<\/p>\n

The four protesters were shot dead Sunday in Douala, the economic capital, as hundreds of people stormed streets in several cities. Videos online showed clashes with security forces, who fired tear gas and tried to disperse people barricading roads in Douala and other cities, including Garoua and Maroua in the north.<\/p>\n

Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of the Littoral Region that includes Douala, said several members of the security forces were injured by protesters, and at least 105 protesters were arrested.<\/p>\n

Dozens of opposition supporters, activists and leaders had been arrested<\/a> in recent days, including several that Paul Atanga Nji, minister of territorial administration, asserted had been plotting violent attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am ready to stake my life to defend my vote. I voted for Tchiroma because I want change,\u201d said one protester, Oumarou Bouba, a 27-year-old trader in Maroua.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of election results, Sani Aladji, a 28-year-old hotel worker in Maroua, said: \u201cNothing will change. I expected that Issa Tchiroma would bring change, which is why I voted for him. There\u2019s rampant corruption under Biya\u2019s regime. We are tired of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one Biya supporter, Flicia Feh, said she believes that he remains the man for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur president campaigned on hope,\u201d she said. \u201cHe started so many projects, like the Yaound\u00e9-Douala motorway, and it\u2019s just normal that he is given more time to complete what he started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameroon\u2019s government said over 5,000 national and international election observers were accredited to monitor the election. A group of eight local civil society groups noted several irregularities including the presence of deceased voters on electoral lists, unequal distribution of ballot papers and attempts at ballot box-stuffing.<\/p>\n

The African Union mission said the vote was \u201cconducted largely in accordance with regional, continental and international standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

President since 1982<\/p>\n

Biya first came to power in 1982 following the resignation of Cameroon\u2019s first president and has ruled since then, later benefiting from a constitutional amendment that abolished term limits.<\/p>\n

His health<\/a> has been a topic of speculation as he spends most of his time in Europe, leaving governance to key party officials and family members.<\/p>\n

While Cameroon is an oil-producing country with modest economic growth, young people say the benefits have not trickled down beyond the elites. According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate stands at 3.5%, but 57% of the labor force aged 18 to 35 works in informal employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany young people across the country and in the diaspora had hoped for change, but that their hopes have been dashed. It feels like a missed opportunity,\u201d said Emile Sunjo, a senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Buea. \u201cCameroon could potentially slide into anarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics also accuse Biya of leading Cameroon from a period of relative stability into one of conflict. The country in recent years has faced attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north and a secessionist insurgency in the English-speaking North West and South West regions. That crisis, triggered by government attempts to impose French in schools and courts, has killed nearly 7,000 people, displaced more than one million and sent thousands fleeing to neighboring Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Christopher Fomunyoh, regional director at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, said Cameroon\u2019s Constitutional Council \u201cboxed themselves into a corner\u201d and was left with no choice than to declare Biya the winner. <\/p>\n

All those who were involved should \u201cbrace themselves for the inevitable consequences and backlash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Emmanuel Tumanjong in Yaounde contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) \u2014 The world\u2019s oldest president, Cameroon \u2018s 92-year-old Paul Biya, has won election again, the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":337843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45885,166891,90,166892,57,1801,151596,50,166893,45886,80,402,166894,166895,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-337842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-cameroon","9":"tag-christopher-fomunyoh","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-emile-sunjo","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-issa-tchiroma-bakary","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-paul-atanga-nji","17":"tag-paul-biya","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","20":"tag-samuel-dieudonne-ivaha-diboua","21":"tag-sani-aladji","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115450534000044761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}