YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Cameroon’s 92-year-old president introduced Sunday he’ll search his eighth time period within the upcoming October elections. The announcement comes after months of hypothesis that the ageing chief wouldn’t run, setting the stage for an electoral showdown.
Paul Biya, Africa’s second-longest-serving president after Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, is steadily sick and overseas. Final 12 months, speak unfold that he had died, prompting the federal government to publicly deny the rumors. Cameroon’s second president since independence from France in 1960, Biya has been in energy since 1982.
Promising that the perfect is but to return in his submit on social media, Biya reiterated his willpower to rule, saying, “Relaxation assured that my willpower to serve you is commensurate with the intense challenges dealing with us.”
The greater than 40 years of Biya’s rule have left an enduring affect. His authorities has confronted numerous challenges, together with allegations of corruption and a secessionist motion in Cameroon’s English-speaking provinces that has compelled hundreds out of faculty and triggered lethal clashes with safety forces.
“President Biya’s announcement to run once more is a transparent signal of Cameroon’s stalled political transition. After over 40 years in energy, what the nation wants is renewal – not repetition. Cameroonians deserve democratic change and accountable management,” Nkongho Felix Agbor, a human rights advocate and lawyer informed The Related Press.
Cameroon has additionally needed to cope with spillover violence by the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group, primarily based in neighboring Nigeria.
Just lately, a number of of Biya’s longtime allies defected to announce their very own candidacies for president.
He cruised to victory in 2018 with over 70% of the vote in an election marred by irregularities and low turnout resulting from ongoing separatist and jihadi violence.
In a area threatened with shrinking democratic area, a number of different African international locations even have presidents accused of utilizing state mechanisms to extend their keep in energy. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni just lately sought nomination for a seventh time period, a transfer that might carry him nearer to 5 many years in energy within the East African nation.
