Updated: March 4, 2021
It may take up to two weeks to complete ongoing vote counting in Cameroon following the presidential election on Sunday.
85-year old Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years since November 1982, is hoping to win another seven-year term.
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Multiple news outlets reported that the election was generally peaceful in French-speaking Cameroon but three people were shot dead by security forces in Bamenda, in the country’s Anglophone region. Officials said the victims were separatists.
English-speaking Cameroonians have been agitating for independence since last year after late 2016 protests for justice and equality turned bloody.
Reports said tens of thousands of people were unable to cast their votes because of insecurity, and the government warned anyone who attempts to announce unofficial results would face legal action.
“Official results of the presidential elections is the sole responsibility of the Constitutional Council. No one has the right to take the place of this jurisdictional authority,” Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji was quoted as telling reporters.
“Any challenge of the poll verdict outside legal channels will not be tolerated,” he added.
The main opposition SDF’s candidate, Joshua Osih, urged his supporters to attend vote counts at polling stations themselves and log their own findings on his party’s mobile phone application called “Protect My Vote”.
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