Election fraud protests spark in Cameroon as president Biya looks set for eighth term

On Tuesday 21 October, Cameroon police opened fire on a crowd of protesters who were accusing the government of election fraud. The officers killed a teacher from a local primary school, who was reportedly returning home from work.

The shooting took place in Garoua city, in the north of Cameroon. Police used live rounds and fired tear gas into the assembled crowds.

The protesters were supporters of opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who claimed victory after the country’s 12 October election polling. However, the official results have not yet been called.

Allegations of fraud

On 22 October, Cameroon’s constitutional council dismissed ten separate petitions contesting the election results. The appeals alleged voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and other irregularities on behalf of Biya. However, the council refused to annul the election on the grounds of insufficient evidence and lack of jurisdiction.

Tchiroma was previously an employment minister, and an ally of Biya. However, after breaking ranks earlier this year his own election bid drew endorsements from several prominent civic groups and opposition parties.

Biya has been in power for 43 years. He’s the world’s oldest head of state, aged 92. The people of Cameroon had reportedly begun to resent his control of the state due to increasing economic insecurity. However, most analysts still tipped the incumbent to win.

Biya’s presidency has been plagued by allegations of electoral fraud since Cameroon’s first multiparty elections in the 1990s. Observers from within and outside the country have documented evidence of systematic fraud and voter manipulation serving Biya and his party, in both presidential and parliamentary elections.

‘Falsified and truncated results’

Cameroon follows a single-round election system: whichever candidate gets the most votes takes the presidency. Each individual polling station can count and publish its own local results. However, only the Constitutional Council has the authority to tally and announce the countrywide results.

The council won’t release the official victor until Monday 27 October. However, this didn’t stop Tchiroma declaring himself the “legal and legitimate president” in a video posted to Facebook. The challenger made the claim based on returns representing 80% of the electorate, of which he said 55% were in his favour.

Tchiroma stated that:

If the Constitutional Council proclaims falsified and truncated results, it will be complicit in a breach of trust.

He also called on supporters to “march for liberation”, and warned that:

with their backs against the wall, the people will have no choice but to take their destiny into their own hands and seek victory wherever they can find it.

In response, Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) called Tchiroma’s declarations a “grotesque hoax”. They also reiterated that only the Constitutional Council can declare the victor. Preliminary reports from local vote-counters currently look set to give Biya the win.

‘The government wants to rig it’

Protests in favour of Tchiroma swept several major cities, including Tchiroma’s hometown of Garoua, the capital Yaoundé, and the northern city of Maroua. Police have injured dozens of protesters, and killed at least two. For their part, protesters used burning tires to block roads and form barricades.

One of those killed, a teacher, was reportedly hit by a stray bullet as she walked home from work. Her funeral drew hundreds of mourners, who also chanted in protest against Biya’s rule.

In Maroua, protesters nailed a letter to the door of the regional governor, reading:

The young people of Maroua are writing to you today to inform you that we are fed up with this country because the Far North region is the poorest region. All the citizens voted for Issa, but the government wants to rig it. It’s better to go join Boko Haram in Sambisa than to stay for another seven years. If you let us go, you and the CPDM activists will pay with blood in Maroua.

The minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, announced that at least 20 people had been arrested during the protests. They face trial in front of a military tribunal, on extremely serious charges. The minister stated that these include “incitement to rebellion and insurrection”, and reiterated that the government would not tolerate threats to public order.

Whatever result the Constitutional Council declares on Monday, it looks certain that unrest in Cameroon will not be over. With the stage set for another 7 years of Biya’s rule, Tchiroma and his supporters have sworn that:

The vast majority of the Cameroonian people will never accept that the council validates the historic scale of ballot stuffing and falsification.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Firstpost