Cameroon in crisis as candidates seek election annulment

Rumours of a coup d’etat in Cameroon have been circulating on the internet but have not been confirmed.

Meanwhile, three leading contenders for Cameroon’s presidency on Thursday asked the Constitutional Council to scrap a weekend election in which incumbent Paul Biya sought a seventh term, citing massive fraud.

The official results have not yet been announced, but Maurice Kamto, who stirred controversy with an unsubstantiated claim he won Sunday’s presidential poll, called for the vote to be annulled in seven of the country’s 10 regions, citing “multiple irregularities, serious cases of fraud and multiple violations of the law”.

READ MORE: 22 Anglophone insurgents killed in Cameroon

The seven regions include francophone Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, where a separatist movement has unleashed a brutal government crackdown.

Voting was disrupted in the anglophone areas, where turnout was below five percent, according to the International Crisis Group think tank.

Joshua Osih from the main opposition Social Democratic Front party and Cabral Libii, who at 38 is the youngest contender for the top job, asked for the election to be annulled completely.

The Constitutional Court, which is dominated by Biya loyalists, will have to deliver its verdict soon as the final results have to be out within two weeks of the election.

The 85-year-old Biya has ruled Cameroon for 36 years.

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