The world’s oldest head of state, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, 92, has said he will run once more for re-election in October aiming to extend his 43 years in power.<\/p>\n
“Rest assured that my determination to serve you matches the urgency of the challenges we face,” he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
He added that his decision to go for an eighth term came after “numerous and insistent” calls by people from all regions in Cameroon and the diaspora.<\/p>\n
Biya’s administration has faced criticism over corruption, embezzlement, bad governance and failure to tackle security challenges. There have also been concerns about his health and ability to govern.<\/p>\n
His absence from the public for more than six weeks last year led to speculation about his well-being and unfounded rumours that he had died.<\/p>\n
His candidacy was expected but not formally confirmed until Sunday’s social media post.
\nBiya has never lost an election since taking power in 1982 and if he wins another seven-year term he could be president until he is nearly 100.<\/p>\n
There have been growing calls from inside and outside Cameroon for him to step aside and give way for fresh leadership in the central African nation.<\/p>\n
His candidacy follows a recent political divorce from key allies from the northern regions, who had been crucial in helping secure votes in previous elections from that part of the country.<\/p>\n
Two of these men – prominent minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary and former Prime Minister Bello Bouba Maigari – recently quit the ruling coalition and separately announced plans to run in the election.<\/p>\n
Last month, Tchiroma said the Biya administration he belonged to had “broken” public trust and he was switching to a rival party.<\/p>\n
Multiple opposition figures, including 2018 runner-up Maurice Kamto, as well as Joshua Osih, Akere Muna, and Cabral Libii, have also announced their candidacies.<\/p>\n
However, members of the governing Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement and other supporters have since last year publicly called for Biya to seek another term. He was already the de-facto candidate as the party leader.<\/p>\n
Biya abolished term limits in 2008, enabling him to seek the presidency indefinitely.
\nHe won the 2018 elections with more than 71% of the vote although opposition groups accused the process of widespread irregularities.<\/p>\n
Source: BBC News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world’s oldest head of state, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, 92, has said he will run once more for re-election in October aiming to extend his 43 years in power. “Rest assured that my determination to serve you matches the urgency of the challenges we face,” he said in a post on X. He added…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":86994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86995,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86993\/revisions\/86995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}