Security Beefed As Cameroon's Biya Heads For Crushing Poll Win

Cameroon's long-serving ruler Paul Biya was Monday headed for a crushing win following a controversial presidential election, as the government tightened security in the capital and gunfire erupted in the country's volatile Anglophone region.

Yaound, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Oct, 2018 ) :Cameroon's long-serving ruler Paul Biya was Monday headed for a crushing win following a controversial presidential election, as the government tightened security in the capital and gunfire erupted in the country's volatile Anglophone region.

The Constitutional Council, dominated by Biya loyalists, on Monday started releasing the results of the October 7 ballot.

It said the 85-year-old, who has ruled the country since 1982, got a landslide victory in six of the country's 10 regions, with a seventh going to the opposition.

The seven regions include francophone Cameroon's two English-speaking regions, where a separatist movement has unleashed a brutal government crackdown.

Voting was disrupted in the anglophone areas, where turnout was below five percent, according to the International Crisis Group think tank.

Witnesses on Monday told AFP of gunfire during the morning in Buea, capital of the English-speaking Southwest region, which has been rocked by violence for months.

The Constitutional Council had 15 days after the vote to weigh up objections filed concerning the election. It rejected all 18 complaints. The final results can no longer be challenged.

Biya notably won 79.7 percent of the vote in Adamaoua, 71.1 percent in the Centre and 90.4 percent in the East, the Council said.

AFP journalists reported tight security around the main post office in the capital Yaounde after calls on social media for a protest rally against the results.

Anti-riot police trucks and security forces were deployed across the area.

Authorities on Sunday had banned an opposition march in the commercial capital Douala called to denounce the "shameful and massive fraud" in the election. About 30 people were arrested on the spot, AFP journalists reported.

Maurice Kamto, who pronounced himself the winner of the vote before even the first results were announced -- leading the government to brand him an outlaw -- has alleged that six of the 11 members of the Constitutional Council were biased in Biya's favour.

Kamto was Monday declared the winner in the Littoral province -- the only one not so far won by Biya -- where he got 38.6 percent of the vote.

Kamto has also called for the vote to be annulled in seven of the country's 10 regions, citing "multiple irregularities, serious cases of fraud and multiple violations of the law".