It has been almost a month since the CPDM-dominated Constitutional Council declared 92-year-old Paul Biya the winner of the presidential election, despite overwhelming evidence of fraud. The euphoria that would normally characterise a presidential victory was non-existent. This is because citizens were being killed in cities across the country as the winner was announced.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who is currently in The Gambia, denounced the Constitutional Council’s results, providing what he described as glaring evidence that he won the election. The CPDM, which had representatives in almost all the polling units nationwide, has never released its results to prove Tchiroma wrong.
While Issa Tchiroma maintains that he is the legitimate president-elect of Cameroon, Parliament has moved to swear in Paul Biya for an eighth term.
Since November 6th, when Mr Biya took the oath of office, he has not changed a single person in his cabinet. It is the same government that was in place before the election.
Scouting for Recognition
Although he is the legal president of Cameroon, Biya’s legitimacy remains a challenge his administration struggles to move past. Cameroonians are heeding calls from Issa Tchiroma to stay at home or take to the streets when he commands. Meanwhile, major allies like France have not recognized Paul Biya’s reelection. The U.S. congratulated Biya on his inauguration but not on his reelection, raising questions about its stance on the legitimacy of the vote.
On On the Road to Etoudi, MMI’s flagship programme, Benjamin Akih, Rapporteur of the Council for the Sovereignty of Cameroon, said that once Issa Tchiroma is sworn in, countries that congratulated Biya would also congratulate Tchiroma.
Two weeks after taking office, the Director of the Civil Cabinet continues to publish letters from foreign bodies commenting on the election—an election that Paul Biya has said is behind “us.”
However, observers say that publishing these cherry-picked letters further amplifies the argument that the regime is desperate for recognition, thereby raising concerns about whether Paul Biya actually won the election.