Preliminary results from Cameroon’s presidential election indicate that opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary is making significant gains in regions traditionally dominated by incumbent President Paul Biya, Daily Trust has gathered.
Biya, 92, is seeking another term in office against nine challengers, including several former allies and cabinet members. Among them are Bello Bouba Maigari, a former Minister of Tourism, and Bakary, who until recently served as Minister of Employment.
The long-serving president cast his vote at a primary school in Yaoundé, the capital, where he declined to speak to reporters, saying he would await the official results.
Early tallies from several commune councils across the country suggest that Bakary’s party, the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon (FSNC), is gaining ground against Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM).
A journalist monitoring the process, who requested anonymity, said Bakary appeared to be leading in multiple polling units across Yaoundé’s seven communes.
> “From the results coming from various polling booths, Bakary is taking an early lead,” the source said.
Each commune reportedly contains between 40 and 50 polling stations, making Yaoundé a crucial battleground.
Bakary, 79, who hails from Garoua in the Far North Region, is also said to have outperformed Bello Bouba Maigari in their shared home region.
However, the ruling CPDM is still expected to maintain strong support in the Far North and the English-speaking Southwest and Northwest regions, collectively referred to by separatists as Ambazonia.
Another journalist confirmed that Bakary secured a majority of diaspora votes cast at Cameroonian embassies, except in Moscow.
“It’s unprecedented since the 1992 presidential elections for an opposition candidate to make such early gains,” the journalist noted.
Despite the apparent momentum, the results remain provisional and are subject to validation by the Constitutional Council, which is expected to announce the final outcome within two weeks.
“Even these results could still be altered by the electoral commission or the Supreme Court to favour their preferred candidate,” another source cautioned.
Cameroon operates a single-round voting system, where the candidate with the highest number of votes is declared the winner.
