Overview

• On July 13, President Paul Biya formally declared his candidacy for an eighth term in the October 12 election.
• If elected, the 92-year-old would extend his rule beyond 43 years, reinforcing his status as the world’s oldest serving head of state.
• Critics point to severe restrictions on opposition parties, suppressed press freedoms and past vote-rigging allegations undermining the ostensibly multiparty system.
• Biya paved the way for indefinite reelection by abolishing presidential term limits in 2008 and sustains his rule through entrenched patronage networks.
• The election unfolds against a violent Anglophone separatist conflict that has killed over 6,500 people, displaced around 600,000 and left roughly 40% of the population living in poverty.