By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
New York – Paul Biya, an octogenarian who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, has been sworn in as the Central African country’s President for a seventh term. The opposition accused the October 7 elections of being rigged in favor of Biya. The 85-year-old Biya was officially declared the winner of the elections on October 22. The polls were stained by low turnout and voter intimidation. Biya, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest president, garnered 71.3 percent of the vote. Opposition challenger Maurice Kamto came in a distant second with 14.2 of vote.
Opposition Supporters Refuse To Accept Biya As Cameroon President
Critics Charge That Cameroon Election Was Tainted By Fraud
Opposition supports believe Kamto won the October 7 presidential election and call on Biya to hand over power for the good of the country. Kamto has called for the vote to be annulled in seven of the country’s 10 regions, citing “multiple irregularities, serious cases of fraud and multiple violations of the law.”
Will Biya Be Cameroon’s ‘President For Life’ As Many Other African Leaders Have Aspired To Despite Will Of People?
It looks like Biya desires to be Cameroon’s “President For Life” along the lines of a Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who ruled the country more than three decades until his forced resignation last year at age 93.
Meanwhile, violence has increased in Cameroon. Some 79 students were kidnapped from a school in the country’s restive English-speaking northwest region a day before Biya was sworn in as President. Biya’s inauguration was held in the capital Yaoundé under tightened security, amid fears of possible unrest.
U.S. Concerned Over Increased Violence in Cameroon
“The United States condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the November 5 kidnapping of students and staff from the Presbyterian Secondary School of Nkwen near Bamenda, Cameroon. We call for the immediate and safe return of these students and staff to their families. The United States expresses grave concern over the burgeoning Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions. We urge an immediate halt to the indiscriminate targeting of civilians and burning of houses by Cameroonian government forces and to attacks perpetrated by both Anglophone separatists against security forces and civilians.”
Heather Nauert, U.S. Department of State spokesperson, Nov. 6, 2018.
