Polls have opened in Cameroon in an election that could see the world’s oldest serving head of state extend his rule for another seven years.
The single-round election on Sunday is likely to return 92-year-old incumbent Paul Biya as president for an eighth term in the Central African nation of 30 million people.
Biya, in power for 43 years, faces off against 11 challengers, including former government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary, 79, who has generated unexpected momentum for a campaign calling for an end to the leader’s decades-long tenure.
Bakary – a close ally of Biya for 20 years, who resigned from the government in June to join the opposition – is considered the top contender to unseat the incumbent after another leading opponent, Maurice Kamto, was barred from the race.
But analysts predict Biya’s re-election, given his firm grip on state machinery and a divided opposition.
Reporting from Yaounde, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said the voters, whether they sought change or the return of Biya, were desperate for the winner to tackle issues confronting the country.
“What all of them agree upon is the situation in Cameroon needs a lot of commitment,” he said.
Idris said while the country’s GDP had been growing since 2023, unemployment, falling commodity prices and rising poverty amid a cost of living crisis were impacting ordinary Cameroonians, while new infrastructure investment was also sorely needed.
More than eight million people registered to vote, including over 34,000 overseas. The Constitutional Council has until October 26 to announce the final results.
‘Divide to rule’
“We shouldn’t be naive. We know full well the ruling system has ample means at its disposal to get results in its favour,” Cameroonian political scientist Stephane Akoa told the AFP news agency, noting that the campaign had been “much livelier” in recent days than previous versions.
“This poll is therefore more likely to throw up surprises,” he said.
Francois Conradie, lead political economist at Oxford Economics, told the Reuters news agency that while “a surprise is still possible”, “a divided opposition and the backing of a formidable electoral machine will, we predict, give the 92-year-old his eighth term”.
“Biya has remained in power for nearly 43 years by deftly dividing his adversaries, and, although we think he isn’t very aware of what is going on, it seems that the machine he built will divide to rule one last time,” Conradie said.
Biya – who has won every election in the past 20 years by more than 70 percent of the ballot – ran a characteristically low-profile campaign, appearing in public only on Tuesday for the first time since May, AFP reported.
His sole rally in Maroua, the regional capital of the strategic Far North region, drew a crowd of just a few hundred people, far smaller than a rally in the same city by Bakary this week, which drew thousands, AFP said.
Biya, whose health is a subject of frequent speculation, spends much of his time in Europe, leaving day to day governing to party officials and family members, the Associated Press news agency reported.
‘We want change’
Cameroon is Central Africa’s most diversified economy and a significant producer of oil and cocoa.
But voters in a country where about four people in 10 live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, complain about the high cost of living, high unemployment and a lack of clean water, healthcare and quality education.
Hassane Djbril, a driver in the capital, Yaounde, told Reuters that there were “no jobs” for those seeking work. He said he planned to vote for Bakary. “We want change because the current government is dictatorial.”
Herves Mitterand, a mechanic in Douala, told Reuters he also wanted Biya to go.
“For me, things have only gotten worse,” he said. “We want to see that change, we want to see it actually happen. We don’t want to just keep hearing words any more.”
The vote takes place in the shadow of a conflict between separatist forces and the government that has plagued the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions since 2016.