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Sunday, October 7, 2018

2018 Cameronian Presidential Election Sunday Oct 07,2018

 

Cameroonians head to the polls on Sunday Oct 07,2018 with octogenarian President Paul Biya seeking a seventh term against a backdrop of unprecedented violence in the country's English-speaking regions.

Biya has been in power for 35 years and now faces seven opposition contenders following Muna's withdrawal.

The opposition front-runners are Osih and Kamto.

The vote follows a last-minute opposition unity bid to dislodge the 85-year-old incumbent.

Two leading opponents have formed the first electoral union since 1992, but talks between the wider opposition field to create a "super-coalition" to deny Biya another seven years were apparently unsuccessful.

In a rare coordinated political manoeuvre, one of the key opposition frontrunners, Maurice Kamto, agreed late Friday to a unity deal between his Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) and the People's Development Front (FDP), meaning he will stand on behalf of both parties.

It is the first such tactical pre-election tie-up since John Fru Ndi stood as the sole opposition candidate in 1992 in polls that his supporters say he won, but allege were manipulated to hand victory to Biya.

Cameroon's 6.5 million eligible voters will cast their ballots as the toll continues to mount in the anglophone southwest and northwest, which have been rocked by a separatist insurgency launched a year ago against the mainly francophone state

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