Paul Bea, young voters and the backlash to his video AI campaign

Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state, at 92, promised Cameroonian voters that “the best is yet to come” as he seeks his eighth consecutive presidential term on Sunday.

This less-than-two-year-old has already been in power since 1982, and another seven-year term could see him rule for 50 years until he is almost 100 years old.

He defied widespread calls to step down and was criticized for attending just one rally, spending most of the campaign on a 10-day private trip to Europe.

Backlash over his reliance on an AI-generated campaign video, while his opponents appealed to voters on the ground, sent him hurtling north as he returned home.

In the vote-rich city of Maroua, he on Tuesday addressed crowds of his party’s supporters, reaching out in particular to women and youth, and promising to prioritize their plight in his next term.

“I will keep my word,” he insisted, urging them to “give me your valuable support again.”

But political analyst Emmanuel Wanah tells the BBC that Biya’s primary focus since coming to power has been to remain in power, “often at the expense of efforts to improve the living conditions of the country’s citizens.”

It is a view echoed by Dr. Telarius Attia, another political analyst, who attributes this survival mentality to the failed coup against Biya in 1984.

This means that, for the vast majority of the population, Biya is the only president they have ever known – more than 60% of Cameroon’s thirty million people are under the age of twenty-five.

Young political activist Marie-Fleur Mbusi is desperate for “new blood” because she believes that “longevity in power inevitably leads to a kind of laziness.”

“After 43 years, people are fed up,” she told the BBC.

The presidential elections come amid growing concerns about inflation, security challenges, weak social services, corruption and unemployment.

Youth unemployment was a particular discussion point for most of the candidates running in the elections.

Nearly 40% of Cameroonian youth between the ages of 15 and 35 are unemployed, and 23% of young graduates face challenges in obtaining formal employment, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Fanina Nzekwe, 26, told the BBC: “Young people are more inclined to migrate abroad because they tell themselves that they have no possibility of becoming people inside the country.”

“They tell themselves that all positions are held by older people,” she says, adding that this comes at the expense of using their skills to help develop the country.

But Aziza Mbe, 23, believes that age should not be a criterion for driving.

In Biya’s case, the civil society activist says the president has been able to do “important things,” citing several youth initiatives.

Aside from youth unemployment, the electoral process also sparked controversy, especially with the exclusion of Maurice Kamto from the presidential race.

In July The Electoral College barred the 71-year-old opposition leader from running Because a rival faction of the party that supported him put forward someone else as a candidate.

His exclusion, confirmed by the Constitutional Council, was widely criticized as a ploy to prevent any strong challenge to President Biya.

After finishing second in the 2018 presidential election, Kamto declared victory and organized street protests.

“Excluding Professor Kamto reduces the legitimacy of our democracy because we should have been fair enough to allow everyone to participate,” says Dr. Attia.

Mr. Wanah agrees that the absence of the country’s main opposition figure “reinforces the perception that truly fair elections cannot be held in Cameroon.”

Twelve candidates have been approved to vie for the country’s highest office, including Issa Chiroma Bakare and Bello Buba Maigari – both former Biya allies from the north of the country. They resigned from their ministerial positions in the government to take over as their president.

Also in the race are lawmaker Cabral Libby, opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party leader Joshua Oseh, and Patricia Tomainu Ndam Njoya – the only female candidate.

At the launch of the election campaign, two aspirants, including popular anti-corruption lawyer Akiri Muna, withdrew their nominations to support NUDP’s Maigari. This means that 10 people will now compete for the presidency.

Ahead of the election – which will be just a one-round vote in which the person with the most votes will win – there have been widespread calls for the opposition to field a single candidate to challenge Biya, who has never lost an election.

Tchiroma Bakary has received the support of the Union for Change, a coalition of more than 50 political groups and civil society organizations that have presented him as the opposition’s consensus candidate.

But the initiative failed to gain consensus, as others refused to rally behind it.

Kamto said he held talks with some of the aspirants, including northern figures Chiroma Bakare and Maigari, and encouraged them to unite. Since neither of them appears ready to step down, he urged Cameroonians to vote for whoever they prefer.

Dr. Attia believes that failure to support one candidate within one coalition will cost the opposition at the ballot box.

During the election campaign, 76-year-old former government spokesman Chiroma Bakare attracted large crowds, with some analysts describing the leader of Cameroon’s National Salvation Front party as Biya’s main rival.

On Sunday, thousands of his supporters waited for hours in the rain to see him in the economic capital, Douala.

He promised to reform the system he had been part of for two decades.

Despite Chiroma Bakare’s support base in the north, analysts say Biya is likely to defeat him and other opposition candidates.

“President Biya needs a small majority to win the elections, and I see him winning despite the efforts of the opposition,” says Dr. Attia.

In Cameroon’s Anglophone North-West and South-West regions, where a long-running separatist conflict continues, a ban on boycotting elections has been imposed, paralyzing business activities, movement and education.

The separatists who imposed it threatened to target anyone who cast a vote.

“We have seen people dragged from their homes and slaughtered in cold blood, before, during and even after the (previous) elections when their identities are determined,” Samah Abang Mugua, an English-speaking resident, told the BBC, adding that he would not risk casting his vote.

Since 2017, those seeking to create a breakaway state have been fighting government forces. They are angry at what they see as the marginalization of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority by the Francophone-dominated government.

The conflict has so far killed at least 6,000 people and forced nearly half a million others from their homes, according to the United Nations.

According to civil society activist Abin Aya, the potential exclusion of a large portion of the English-speaking community could undermine the legitimacy of the elections.

Although Biya says his government has made great efforts to resolve the conflict, his opponents in the presidential race continue to criticize his handling of the situation.

After voting on Sunday, the Constitutional Council has 15 days to announce the results.

The Interior Minister has already warned that no candidate is allowed to declare victory in advance.

Paul Atanga Njie made these comments on the eve of the last day of the election campaign.

“Those who would attempt to declare the results of the presidential election or any self-declared victory in violation of the laws of the Republic will have crossed a red line and must be prepared to face retaliatory measures commensurate with their crime.”

Additional reporting by the BBC’s Michel Mfundu in Yaoundé.