Information from the election managing body in Cameroon, Elections Cameroon – ELECAM, have it that some 7.5 million voters were expected at the polls, including some Cameroonians in the Diaspora who registered, for the first time, to be part of the voting process.

Incumbent President Paul Biya is contesting alongside twenty-two other challengers. These include frontline opposition leader, Ni John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Party, SDF.

After casting his vote in Yaounde on October 9, Biya told the press that he put in his candidature for the country’s top job once more, because of the numerous calls made by his party (Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM) militants. Sitting President Biya has been at the helm of political power in Cameroon for twenty-nine years.

According to the legal instruments governing Presidential Election in Cameroon, the results are expected to be published fifteen days after the day of election, but the results could be proclaimed even before.

Within these fifteen days, ELECAM, will ensure that the votes are properly counted, following the various processes embedded in the counting procedure. Thereafter, the results are handed over by ELECAM to the Supreme Court, which for now is acting as the Constitutional Council in Cameroon for official declaration.

While the votes of each polling station are counted and made public at the close of polls, thereafter, publication of trends are not allowed by media houses, according to the law in Cameroon.

Acknowledging that perfection is divine, President Biya said ELECAM, for the first in organising elections in Cameroon is liable to some shortcomings, “but it does not take away the credibility of the election,” he told the press.

However, the SDF Chieftain, Fru Ndi and some other Presidential Hopefuls told journalists a few hours after that the polls were closed that the October 9 Presidential Poll was marred with fraud and irregularities, citing cases of multiple voters, the indelible ink not being delible, some voters having more than one voter cards, some opposition party representatives chased away from polling stations, especially those in remote areas and more.

These claims were later dismissed by the ELECAM Chair, Dr. Samuel Fonkam Azu’u who said at a press briefing on October 10: “The Presidential Election in Cameroon went on in an atmosphere of peace, order and some minor dysfunctions. The dysfunctions recorded in some polling stations do not impact, negatively, on the general conduct of the election.”

In a separate development, two Cameroonian Gendarmerie Officers were found dead, with bullet wounds in the early hours of October 9, the day of the Presidential Election in Cameroon. This incident happened in Isangele Subdivision, the Bakassi area in the Southwest Region of Cameroon.

Reacting on the incident, Cameroon’s Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary said the two Cameroonian security officers killed, who were in a company of four Gendarme Officers, using a motorbike, because of the inaccessible nature of their area of operation, were on a mission when they met their sudden death from unidentified gun men.

“Information from our collaborators on the ground say that there are no immediate connections of the death of the Cameroonian Gendarmes to the Presidential Election,” Tchiroma mentioned in a communiqué read on the government radio and television, Cameroon Radio & Television, CRTV.