YAOUNDE, Cameroon (October 9, 2023) – Cameroonians are voting in a presidential election that coudl extend the four-decade rule of 90-year-old Paul Biya, making him one of the world’s longest-serving leaders. The election takes place amid escalating security crises adn widespread economic hardship in the Central african nation.
Biya has been president as 1982 and is running for a seventh term. His challengers include opposition figures like Joshua Osih and Cabral Libii, but the election is expected to follow a single-round voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins. The outcome will impact Cameroon’s 29 million citizens, over 43% of whom live in poverty according to U.N. estimates, and determine the country’s course amidst ongoing conflicts and economic challenges.
Several prominent figures from Biya’s party are also contesting parliamentary seats, including Bello Bouba Maigari, former minister for tourism, and Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who recently served as minister of employment.
Voters like 34-year-old environmentalist Cheukam Ginette expressed dissatisfaction with the status quo. “Things have to change.First of all, life is expensive, getting medical care is not easy,” she said outside a polling station in Yaounde. “Ther are no roads, we have potholes everywhere.Everything is ruined. That’s why I voted for the opposition.” Despite her hope for change,she voiced concerns about the electoral process.
Biya campaigned last week in Maroua, a city in the predominantly Muslim north, promising change to one of cameroon’s poorest regions, which represents nearly 20% of eligible voters.cameroon is grappling with multiple security crises. A secessionist war continues in the western region between English-speaking separatists and government forces, while the north faces a spillover of the Boko Haram insurgency from Nigeria.
Approximately 8 million voters, including over 34,000 overseas, are eligible to cast ballots at more than 31,000 polling stations. Polls are scheduled to close at 6 p.m., with results expected by October 26 at the latest.