Vote counting is currently ongoing in Cameroon following the close of polls in the country’s presidential election.
Citizens both within the country and abroad cast their ballots for one of ten candidates contesting the presidency.
Observers reported that voting was largely peaceful, though minor disturbances were recorded at some polling stations.
In one polling location in the capital, Yaoundé, BBC correspondents met a crowd of voters who insisted on protecting their votes after an electoral official ordered them to leave the entrance of the voting hall.
Voter turnout was low in some polling units.
Meanwhile, in the Anglophone regions — where separatists had tried to prevent residents from voting — some people still came out to choose their next leader, though many others stayed away out of fear of potential attacks.
Shortly after voting ended, President Paul Biya praised the maturity with which the polls were conducted, describing the process as calm.
Opposition candidate and former Biya ally Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who voted in his hometown of Garoua, said he received several threats on election day.
“Tchiroma is not the problem,” he told reporters, adding that he had “placed himself under the protection of God and the Cameroonian people.”
“I’m in my house; I won’t leave. If they plan to come and take me away, I still won’t move,” he declared.
During the campaign, Tchiroma drew large crowds and has been seen by analysts as the main challenger to the 92-year-old Biya.
Ahead of the vote, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji warned all candidates against declaring victory on their own, stressing that only the Constitutional Council is authorized to release official results.
He claimed to have received reports that one candidate — whose name he did not mention — was planning to announce victory prematurely.
Nji also dismissed private efforts to collate results independently, threatening arrests and legal action against anyone involved.
The Constitutional Council has up to 15 days from election day to officially announce the results.
