"Notre victoire est claire" : Issa Tchiroma Bakary dit avoir battu Biya
Former opposition minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed victory in Cameroon's presidential election on Tuesday, challenging incumbent Paul Biya, who has been in power for 43 years, with official results not expected for another two weeks.
"Our victory is clear. It must be respected," said Mr. Tchiroma, 79, calling on the regime to "accept the truth of the ballot box" or "plunge the country into torment." "The people have chosen, and this choice must be respected," he insisted on his Facebook page, promising to publish a detailed report of the results by region.
While it is permitted to make public the minutes of each polling station, it is illegal to announce the result of the vote before the Constitutional Council.
"This is the red line that must not be crossed," reiterated the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, during a press conference on Sunday evening.
The authorities have neither released the turnout nor specified the exact date for the announcement of the results, which the Constitutional Council has scheduled for October 26. This delay has fueled fears of fraud in favor of Paul Biya, 92, who has been re-elected with more than 70% of the vote for more than two decades.
In his nearly five-minute video, a "moved" Issa Tchiroma reported a "crushing victory" which, for him, represents "a clear sanction of the regime in power and a plebiscite in favor of immediate change."
This resigning minister, who left the presidential majority in June after more than 20 years in its fold, brought together several thousand people at his meetings across the country.
"Transition"
"The campaign was much more lively" than usual, Stephane Akoa, a Cameroonian political scientist, told AFP. "This election is therefore perhaps more likely to surprise us," in a country where 40% of the population will live below the poverty line in 2024, according to the World Bank.
On Sunday evening, as the polls closed, many supporters chanted "Goodbye Paul Biya, Tchiroma is coming" in the Briqueterie district, the stronghold of candidate Tchiroma in Yaoundé.
The former Minister of Employment and Vocational Training and president of his party, the Cameroon National Salvation Front (FSNC), was nominated in mid-September as a candidate by the Union for Change 2025, a coalition of minority opposition parties and members of civil society.
Traveling in the English-speaking region during the campaign, he asked for "forgiveness" for having, when he was a minister and government spokesperson, "denied the existence of an English-speaking problem in this country."
In his program, he proposes "3 to 5 years of transition to rebuild" the country which he considers "destroyed" by 43 years of the Biya regime.
In the last presidential election of 2018, Maurice Kamto, who came in second and whose candidacy was rejected this year, declared himself the winner the day after the vote. Kamto was subsequently arrested, and his supporters' rallies were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons, with dozens of protesters arrested – some of whom remain imprisoned.
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