Keypoints:
- Biya seeks eighth term at age 92
- Main challenger Kamto barred from ballot
- Opposition split despite unity calls
WITH Cameroon’s presidential election approaching on October 12, President Paul Biya appears poised to extend his 43-year hold on power despite his 92 years and mounting domestic challenges. If successful, the world’s oldest sitting head of state could remain in office until nearly 100, reinforcing his position as Africa’s second-longest serving leader after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Biya has governed the Central African nation of almost 30 million people since 1982, steering it through conflict, economic stagnation and endemic corruption. United Nations estimates show at least 43 percent of Cameroonians still live in poverty, with limited access to basic education, health care and income opportunities despite the country’s oil and mineral wealth.
Opposition in disarray
The path to yet another seven-year term was eased when Biya’s most credible challenger, Maurice Kamto, was barred from running. Kamto, who gained 14 percent of the vote in the 2018 contest, was disqualified after election officials claimed his party sponsored two candidates. Both Kamto’s lawyers and his party leader denied the allegation, calling the decision politically driven.
Cameroon’s electoral body has long faced accusations of bias. Critics note that some election officials previously held posts in Biya’s government, and a two-term presidential limit was scrapped in 2008. ‘It is needless voting when it is clear that Paul Biya will always be declared winner,’ said Elvis Nghobo, a food vendor in Yaounde.
Despite a record 83 applications, only 12 candidates were cleared for the ballot. Analysts say Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement remains the dominant political force, while a fragmented opposition struggles to agree on a single standard-bearer.
Struggle for unity
All 11 opposition hopefuls publicly support forming a united front, but infighting persists as formal campaigning begins on September 27. Kamto likened the contest to a football penalty shoot-out, urging contenders on X to ‘choose from among yourselves… the kicker who has the best chance of scoring the liberating goal’.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a former Biya ally who resigned his cabinet post to run, was named a consensus candidate by the Union for Change 2025, a coalition of more than 20 parties and civil society groups. Yet his bid to rally rivals has gained little traction. ‘We have only one objective: to liberate Cameroon from the system that has strangled it for more than 40 years,’ Bakary declared.
Tomaino Ndam Njoya, the race’s only woman and a municipal mayor, has signalled willingness to back a consensus figure, saying it is ‘the price to pay to finally offer the Cameroonian people the change they expect and deserve’.
Analysts see little hope
Political observers doubt a late alliance can shift the balance. ‘The candidates appear more concerned with individual political survival than meaningful collective change,’ said Munjah Vitalis Fagha, a senior politics lecturer at the University of Buea. Wilson Tamfuh, professor of public and international law at the University of Dschang, argued that opposition weakness is structural: ‘There would be no need for an opposition consensus if an opposition party had become strong enough in its own right to overcome the ruling party.’
Biya’s rare public appearances and advanced age fuel questions about his capacity to govern, but his control over state institutions remains firm. With a divided opposition and a disqualified frontrunner, many Cameroonians see the result as predetermined, leaving the prospect of political change as distant as ever.
