AT 85 PAUL BIYA WINS ELECTION IN CAMEROON
Admin l Monday, October 22, 2018
YAOUNDE, Cameroon – President of Cameroon, Mr. Paul Biya has been elected for the 7th time. Paul Biya who is 85, scored 71.3% of the votes to defeat his closest rival, Maurice Kamto of the MRC/CRM.
Kamto secured just 14.2% of the total votes. According to reports, Paul Biya won in 10 regions but lost by a small margin in Douala. Nine candidates contested the Presidential election.
The poll was been characterised by low voter turn-out and intimidation of opposition but call for rerun by opposition has been rebuffed by the electoral body.
Electoral observers from the African Union have described the election held 7 October 2018 as generally peaceful, “although there were some security challenges, in particular, the North West and South West regions caused by the Ambaboys armed group and Far North region caused by the Boko Haram insurgents.
“ Notably, the security environment resulted in curtailment of civil and political liberties in these regions of Cameroon, thereby impacting negatively on the level of participation of citizens in the electoral process.
“The AUEOM noted that the foregoing challenges resulted in limited consensus among political players on a number of issues about the electoral process namely, the question of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), provision of security for all polling stations, including electoral personnel, materials and voters in these regions”, it said.
