Cameroonian President Biya Wins Re-election by a Landslide

On October 22, the Cameroonian government finally released the official results of the October 7^th  presidential election. President Paul Biya won re-election with 71% of the vote while his closest rival, Maurice Kamto, won 14%. Biya, now 85 years old, thereby extended his 36-rule and becomes the oldest leader in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the continent’s longest-serving rulers. [1]

The voter turnout, however, was only 54% because of a secessionist uprising in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, where less than 100,000 of the 5 million citizens voted. Indeed, on election day there was gunfire in those regions largest towns and separatists were scaring people from voting in what they deemed an illegal election.

There also were charges of election fraud from the losers. This was after a Cameroonian court had rejected their challenges to the election and after there were major troop deployments in major cities and banning of opposition rallies.[2]

The U.S. State Department immediately congratulated “the people of Cameroon for largely peaceful elections on October 7. We urge all parties – including the government – to respect the rule of law, resolve peacefully any disputes through established legal channels, and avoid hate speech.”

The State Department, however, added, “there were a number of irregularities prior to, during, and after the October 7 election. These irregularities may not have affected the outcome but created an impression that the election was not credible or genuinely free and fair.”In conclusion, the U.S. “strongly encourages both sides involved in the conflict affecting the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon to focus on resolving differences through peaceful dialogue and to allow unhindered access to humanitarian aid workers.”[3]

Immediately after the announcement of the election results heavy fighting broke out between the Cameroon army and separatist rebels with “many” people killed.[4]

These developments–the country’s Francophone-Anglophone and Boko Haram conflicts, the concerns about possible fraud in this last election and the post-election violence–were reviewed by a Washington Post foreign-affairs commentator, Siobhán O’Grady. She concludes that the post-election violence “may be a harbinger of what’s to come: At least 160,000 people are displaced within the country and tens of thousands of others have fled into neighboring Nigeria. Frustrations are now mounting across the country, and the International Crisis Group warned in a report that ‘ordinary people’s opinions are increasingly radical.’” Those “challenges “could soon become larger than . . .[the 85-year old Biya who spends much of his time in luxury residences in Europe] will be able to tackle.”[5]

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[1] Reuters, Biya Wins Cameroon Election to Extend 36-Year Rule, N.Y. Times (Oct. 22, 2018); Assoc. Press, Cameroon’s Biya Easily Wins 7^th Term; Low Anglophone Turnout, N.Y. Times (Oct. 22, 2018); Kamto Declaration, YouTube (circa Oct. 23, 2018)

[2] Maclean, Gunfire in Cameroon’s anglophone regions deters voters on polling day, Guardian (Oct. 7, 2018); Reuters, Cameroon Court Rejects All Petitions Calling for Re-Run of Elections, N.Y. Times (Oct. 19, 2018).

[3] U.S. State Dep’t, Cameroon’s Presidential Election Results (Oct. 22, 2018).

[4] Reuters, Renewed Fighting Kills at Least 10 in Cameroon’s Anglophone Region, N.Y. Times (Oct. 24, 2018); Assoc. Press, Fighting Between Cameroon Military, Separatists Kills ‘Many,” N.Y. Times (Oct. 25, 2018).

[5] O’Grady. Cameroon is spiraling further into violence, Wash. Post (Oct. 26, 2018).