Overview

• Polling stations operated from 0700 to 1700 GMT, with final results due by October 26 under Constitutional Council timelines.
• Authorities accredited about 55,000 observers, including African Union representatives, while independent platforms plan parallel tallies that officials criticize.
• Voting takes place under ongoing violence in the anglophone regions and jihadist threats in the Far North that have depressed turnout in past elections.
• Former minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary drew large crowds in his home region as Biya ran a low-key campaign capped by a single rally in Maroua.
• Roughly eight million people are registered to vote in a country facing high poverty and urban unemployment that fuel calls for change.