Maurice Kamto, candidate of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) party, said on Monday he “was charged with taking a penalty, I took it, and I scored”, proclaiming himself victor of weekend polls. Cameroon’s Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji warned Tuesday that “scoring a goal” is not “winning the match” after an opposition leader used a football metaphor to claim victory in presidential polls.
He gave no evidence for his claim.
The counting of votes is currently going on in an election which may see the 85-year-old President of Cameroon – Paul Biya seeking a seventh term.
The elections held on Sunday were marked by violence, mainly in the anglophone regions as well as low turnout vote turnout and difficulties staging the ballot in the conflict torn areas.
By law each polling station must submit its results, after verification by the Elecam electoral commission, to the Constitutional Court which is responsible for announcing the final, official tally within 15 days of the vote.
However a raft of unofficial results from Cameroon’s almost 25,000 polling stations have already begun to circulate on social media.
The candidate of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, Joshua Osih, said Monday it was “a bit premature to be giving results” and called on his seven fellow candidates to “respect the law”.
The United States embassy in Yaounde called “on all parties to wait until the official results are announced before making pronouncements about the supposed winner”, in a post on its verified Facebook account.
-The Citizen
