Polls opened in Cameroon on Sunday in a presidential election that sees incumbent Paul Biya, 92, seek an eighth consecutive term after 43 years in power. There are 11 other candidates on the ballot, but some analysts say divisions among the opposition are clearing the path for Biya’s reelection.
The candidates were in full campaigning mode until Friday, having had just two weeks to set out their stalls before the 12 October presidential election.
The presidential party, the RDPC, campaigned for Biya without his physical presence until Tuesday, when he attended a meeting in Maroua, the capital of the Far North Region of Cameroon. Biya had not made a public appearance at a party event until then, and hadn’t addressed Cameroonians since a 10 February Youth Day speech.
“I have an opportunity to tell you that my determination to serve you remains intact. I would like to reaffirm this today,” he told the crowd of supporters.
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Fears over divided opposition and instability, as Cameroon heads to the polls
Enrica Picco, Central Africa director for the International Crisis Group (ICG), told RFI: “Many Cameroonians, inside and outside the country, hoped that President Biya would have listened to the many calls, from opposition parties, civil society and from his own party and allies, to step down after 42 years in power.”
However, the opposition did not seize the opportunity to unite behind a strong alternative candidate.
“Though this is not the first time they were told to identify a single candidate to challenge Biya, they didn’t manage to do so,” said Picco.
She added that this could discourage many people from voting – especially those in the far north of Cameroon, where security is a huge issue, making going out to vote potentially dangerous.
Anglophone regions
The election campaign has been severely disrupted in the country’s two predominantly English-speaking regions, the Northwest and the Southwest.
Since September, armed separatist groups have been calling for “ghost town” action, with varying degrees of impact.
Civil society groups called on the belligerents, both armed groups and the state, to do everything possible to allow English-speaking citizens to vote this Sunday, so that these two regions would not be excluded from the electoral process.
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Ayah Abine, a leading figure in English-speaking Cameroon and president of the Ayah Foundation based in Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region, told one of RFI’s reporters in Cameroon: “The economy is on the floor, schools aren’t working, not much is really happening, that’s deplorable… but the brave will come out [to vote].”
“I, for example, will go to vote, really hoping that everything will go well,” he added. “But many won’t have the courage to face armed men.”
Electoral logistics
There are around 7.845 million registered Cameroonians voters, including 26,800 in the country’s diaspora.
For the previous presidential election on 7 October 2018, there were 6,687,000 registered voters, and participation was 53.85 percent across the national territory and 48.1 percent within the diaspora.
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The presidential election in Cameroon is a single-round, majority vote. The candidate with the most votes wins the election, for a seven-year mandate, renewable without limit since the reform of the constitution in 2008.
There will be 30,357 polling stations open across the country on Sunday, and in 44 diplomatic missions and consular posts.
The authorities deployed the equipment and personnel of Elecam (Elections Cameroon), the body in charge of the election, the week before the polls opened.
