Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, 92, has secured an eighth term in office with 53.7 percent of the vote, the Constitutional Council announced on Monday.
Former government minister and rival candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary came in second with 35.2 percent, the council said. Two days after the October 12 election, Tchiroma had claimed victory and called for protests.
Clashes between security forces and opposition supporters in Douala, the country’s economic capital, left four people dead on Sunday, according to the regional governor. Protesters said security forces initially used tear gas before firing live ammunition.
Since the election, Tchiroma’s supporters, who claim he won 54.8 percent of the votes to Biya’s 31.3 percent, have taken to the streets to assert his alleged victory.
Analysts had widely expected Biya, the world’s oldest serving head of state, to win another seven-year term in a political system critics say has been increasingly manipulated.
Biya, only the second president since Cameroon gained independence from France in 1960, has maintained power through a combination of strict control over political life, repression of opposition, economic inequality, and ongoing separatist conflicts.
