Former minister turned opposition leader, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, claimed victory in the Cameroonian presidential election held on Sunday, defying Paul Biya, who has been in power for 43 years. Official results are not expected for another two weeks.
“Our victory is clear. It must be respected,” said 79-year-old Tchiroma on his Facebook page, calling on the regime to “accept the truth of the ballot box” or to “plunge the country into turmoil.” He promised to publish a detailed report of the results by region.
However, Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, reminded during a press conference on Sunday evening that proclaiming the election result before the Constitutional Council is a red line. Authorities have not communicated the voter turnout rate nor specified the exact date of proclamation, scheduled before October 26. This ambiguity fuels fears of fraud in favor of the incumbent president, who has been re-elected for over two decades with over 70% of the votes.
In a five-minute video, Issa Tchiroma, visibly emotional, claimed to have won a “crushing victory” and described this result as a “clear sanction of the current regime and a plebiscite in favor of immediate change.” This resigned minister, who left the presidential majority in June after over 20 years, mobilized several thousand supporters at his rallies.
Political analyst Stéphane Akoa points out to AFP that the campaign has been “much more lively” than usual, suggesting that this election could hold surprises in a country where 40% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2024 according to the World Bank. In Yaoundé, many supporters chanted on Sunday evening: “Goodbye Paul Biya, Tchiroma is coming,” in the Briqueterie neighborhood, the candidate’s stronghold.
President of the Front for National Salvation of Cameroon (FSNC), Tchiroma was designated as a candidate by the Union for Change 2025, a coalition of minority parties and members of civil society. During the campaign, he acknowledged his past mistakes as a minister, admitting to having “denied the existence of an Anglophone problem.” He now proposes a 3 to 5-year transition period to rebuild the country, which he considers “destroyed” by over four decades of Biya’s regime. It is worth noting that in 2018, Maurice Kamto, who came in second, also declared himself the winner before being arrested and having his gatherings violently dispersed, with several protesters still imprisoned.
