The opposition in Cameroon denounces Biya’s victory and claims fraud during violent demonstrations

Opposition leaders in Cameroon didn’t accept the presidential election results that gave President Paul Biya another seven years in power. They said the results didn’t reflect the will of the people in a country that was already fighting a separatist war.

The country’s constitutional council announced on Monday that Biya, 92, won the disputed election with more than 53% of the votes. This led to violent protests in several cities of the oil- and cocoa-producing country.

The judge’s decision, which is final and can’t be challenged, sets off what could be a long standoff after the election.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Biya’s main opponent, had already said he was winning and said he wouldn’t take anything less. An angry group of his followers have taken to the streets, where they have fought with riot police and blocked roads in Douala, the country’s commercial capital, with burning tires and other things.

According to the opposition, at least four people were killed over the weekend and two more on Monday.

Biya’s strongholds held celebrations all over the place, and government officials even had a party. Tuesday was a quiet day in Douala because it rained and riot cops kept protesters away.

The recent use of excessive force to stop protests was met with “deep concern” by the European Union, which called on the authorities to stop this. It also asked leaders to talk to each other to keep the country stable.

Opposition figures say there is widespread fraud.

Other leaders of the opposition have said there was widespread theft, but the government has denied these claims.

A well-known lawyer and past presidential candidate named Akere Muna said the process was rigged and the Constitutional Council was “nothing more than the rubber stamp of a tyranny.”

Even though Muna dropped out of the race 11 days earlier to join a rival alliance, his name was still on the ballot. He said the election showed the will of a system that has been in place for decades to keep power. He said that the low number of voters in English-speaking areas that have been in a separatist war since 2017 was proof of fraud.

“What we saw was not an election fit for a Republic,” Tomaino Ndam Njoya, the only woman running, said after coming in fifth.

“Interests that don’t want the democratic process to be open took away the people’s choice.” “These results are completely unacceptable to me,” she said in a statement late Monday night).

The third-place finisher, Cabral Libii, praised Biya’s win.

People in Douala, which has had some of the most violent protests this week, were ready for more trouble on Tuesday. By early Tuesday afternoon, though, bad weather and armed cops seemed to have mostly broken up small groups of protesters.

Touba resident Jean-Pascal, Paul Biya’s re-election was “a stolen victory,” because the people had turned their backs on the government, which hasn’t made progress in over 40 years.

“Paul Biya was not chosen by the people.” This government hasn’t done anything good for us. It has been 43 years since I was born that this government has been in place. Nothin’ good has come from it. Nothin’,” he said.