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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 23 OcTOber 2018

Cameroon's Biya easily wins 7th term; low Anglophone turnout

By EDWIN KINDZEKA MOKI rie Heungoup with the Inter-
CARA ANNA national Crisis Group said
Associated Press only a few counties' polling
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) stations opened. Biya didn't
— Africa's oldest president, campaign there.
Cameroon's Paul Biya, eas- "Normally the head of state
ily won a seventh term on should be worried to be
Monday after a Constitu- elected when two of the
tional Council that he ap- 10 regions of the country
pointed rejected all legal almost have not participat-
challenges to the election. ed," Heungoup told the AP.
The United States noted ir- "But in the reality of Camer-
regularities that "may not oon, the president doesn't
have affected the out- care."
come but created an im- The Anglophone unrest
pression that the election began after lawyers and
was not credible or genu- teachers in the English-
inely free and fair." speaking regions peace-
Now analysts say the coun- fully protested what they
try threatened by separat- called creeping margin-
ists faces further turmoil if alization by Cameroon's
Biya, who will be 92 when French-speaking majority.
the new term ends, doesn't English-speakers make up
start preparing Cameroon about 20 percent of the
for life without him after de- In this Sunday Oct. 7, 2018 file photo, Cameroon's Incumbent President Paul Biya, of the Cam- population.
eroon People's Democratic Movement party, casts his vote during the Presidential elections in
cades in power. Yaounde, Cameroon. After the government
Major cities saw heavy Associated Press cracked down, armed
troop deployment ahead separatists emerged and
of the election announce- security ally against extrem- hearings, he said. of using the machinery of declared an independent
ment as the government ism and a new member The fractured opposition the state to ensure another state of Ambazonia. Civil-
banned rallies by the oppo- of the U.N. Human Rights brought well over a doz- term. ians caught in the fighting
sition, which had alleged Council. en legal challenges but Monday's troop deploy- have pleaded for peace.
fraud. Biya received more The U.S. statement did not all were rejected by the ment was "intended to Now everything depends
than 71 percent of the give details on the "irregu- council, a collection of punish the majority of Cam- on how Biya interprets his
vote, far ahead of Maurice larities." But the fraud al- high-ranking magistrates eroonians who are disgrun- new mandate, Simon Mun-
Kamto's 14 percent. legations and low turnout and members of Biya's ad- tled with Biya's long stay in zu, a former U.N diplomat
The Oct. 7 election saw mean a weaker mandate ministration. The election power and want him out," and coordinator of next
few voters in English-speak- for the 85-year-old Biya, occurred largely without Osih said. month's Anglophone Gen-
ing regions after nearly a who has led since 1982. Western election monitors. Troops were seen at the eral Conference, told the
quarter-million people fled The government did away The council called the elec- homes of opposition can- AP. The conference orga-
unrest by Anglophone sep- with presidential term limits tion free and fair despite didates Kanto and Cabral nized by religious leaders
aratists. The turnout in the several years ago, part of a security challenges. A close Libii, who had urged Cam- focuses on a possible na-
Southwest was 15 percent trend in Central Africa that Biya aide, Dion Ngute, said eroonians to defend their tional dialogue.
and in the Northwest 5 per- has dismayed many. he wasn't surprised by the rights if they feel cheated. If the president sees this
cent while Biya won in both "What I can tell you is that win because the president The minister of territorial ad- as a chance to address
regions with more than 77 Cameroon will never be is "very persevering ... who ministration, Paul Atanga Anglophone grievances
percent of the vote. Over- the same again," human tells Cameroonians what Nji, said the troops were "we should be optimistic,"
all election turnout was 53 rights lawyer Felix Nkongho can be done and what is not meant to intimidate Munzu said. But if Biya, influ-
percent. Agbor Balla told The Asso- not possible to be done." people but rather protect enced by hardliners, sees
Fighting between the sep- ciated Press. While legal Opposition candidate them from "politicians who the vote as approval of the
aratists' ragtag bands and options for challenging Joshua Osih, who has are pushing naive youth to status quo, "it will be a disas-
security forces accused election results have been compared the inability of the streets." ter. It will mean he adopts a
by rights groups of abuses exhausted, Cameroonians English-speaking voters to Dissatisfaction has been high-handed attitude, not
has killed hundreds and are more aware of their reach the polls to South high in the English-speaking wanting to talk to anybody
posed a serious challenge rights after watching the Africa's former system of Southwest and Northwest, ... preferring to pursue the
for Cameroon, a close U.S. Constitutional Council's apartheid, accused Biya where analyst Hans De Ma- military approach."q