Cameroonian Issa Tchiroma Bakary announces his victory in the presidential elections Election news

The main opposition candidate unilaterally declares victory, and calls on current President Paul Biya to concede.

Cameroonian opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary unilaterally declared victory in the country’s presidential elections.

Chiroma made the statement in a roughly five-minute speech posted on social media early Tuesday. Although official channels did not announce the results, he urged 92-year-old current President Paul Biya to contact him to concede.

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“The people have chosen, and this choice must be respected,” Chiroma said in the video.

However, the government warned earlier this week that only results announced by the Constitutional Council could be considered official. The authority has approximately two weeks to announce this.

Chiroma, a former government spokesman and Biya’s ally for 20 years, was considered the leading contender to oust Biya in the elections. Sunday elections.

After his resignation from government in June, his campaign attracted large crowds and key support from a coalition of opposition parties and civic groups.

But Biya – who has been in power for 43 years and is the world’s oldest head of state – was widely expected to secure another seven-year term, given his tight grip on the state apparatus and the divided nature of the opposition.

The Cameroonian government did not officially respond to Chiroma’s announcement.

However, Regional Administration Minister Paul Atanga Njie recently warned that only the Constitutional Council has the power to declare the winner, and that any unilateral publication of the results would be considered “high treason.”

Reuters news agency reported that the electoral law in Cameroon allows the results to be published and announced in individual polling stations, but the final results must be certified by the Constitutional Council, which has until October 26 to announce the result.

The “honor” of the ballot box

In the video, filmed in his hometown of Garoua in the north of the country and in front of the national flag, Chiroma urged Biya to “respect the reality of the ballot box” and to concede and offer congratulations.

He said doing so would be a sign of Cameroon’s political maturity and the strength of its democracy.

He said the election results represented a “clear punishment” for the Biya administration and represented “the beginning of a new era.”

Chiroma also thanked the rival candidates “who have already congratulated me and recognized the will of the people.”

He called on government institutions and the army to recognize his victory and “stay by the Republic’s side.”

“Do not allow anyone to distract you from your mission to protect people,” he said.