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Cameroon counts the votes after Sunday's presidential election, which officials and observers of the African Union have described as largely successful. The authorities reported minor irregularities and election-related violence, but said that this was not enough to influence the outcome of the vote.
Official results are not expected for two weeks.
Erick Essouse, Chief Electoral Officer at Elections Management Authority ELECAM, said the vote went pretty well in the English and French speaking regions of Cameroon.
"Some minor incidents were observed in some polling stations as a result of verbal abuse by one or two candidates who were clearly seeking to disrupt public order," he said, adding that "such abuses are not acceptable in our democracy of appeasement and tolerance."
More than 7,000 observers, including the African Union, monitored the elections in Cameroon.
Arthene Kwessi Selaeodai Ahooney-zena, chief of the AU observation mission, said that no major incidents likely to influence the results have been observed, even though There would have been fighting in the restless English-speaking areas. He added that the AU had not sent observers to these areas but that it was being monitored remotely.
Cameroonian authorities reported that one priest and three separatists had been killed the day before the elections in the English-speaking region of the country, during clashes with security forces.
English-speaking separatists want an autonomous government in Yaoundé and are engaged on social networks to prevent Sunday's election.
While security prevailed in the anglophone northwest and southwest of Cameroon, the separatists were unable to execute their threat.
The businessman Desmund Abefuh, from the English-speaking city of Bamenda, says he voted despite the threat and is eager to see the results.
President Paul Biya has been leading Cameroon for 36 years and is expected to win another seven-year term.
The fractured opposition of Cameroon has not been able to rally behind a powerful opponent of the 85-year-old leader.
Nevertheless, some supporters of the candidate of the Party of the Cameroonian Renaissance Movement (CRM), Maurice Kamtos, claim victory.
Attorney Akere Muna withdrew his candidacy at the last minute and supported Kamtos.
Muna said he was shocked to find his ballot papers at the polls when he had written to ask ELECAM to remove them. He alleges that such acts are intended to facilitate fraud and may have serious consequences.
However, ELECAM says that Muna gave them just one day 's notice before the vote. He therefore did not have enough time to withdraw his name from the ballots in the 25,000 polling stations.
The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, said it was illegal to speculate on election results before they became official.
"The official proclamation of results is an exclusive right of the constitutional council and no one has the right to substitute for it," he said. "Any form of contesting the verdict of the polls other than the constitutional legal means will not be tolerated."
Despite the threats of the separatists, Biya's party campaigned in the northwest during the weekend under high security.
The eight opponents of his party either avoided the two English-speaking regions or were chased out.
English-speaking separatists launched a violent campaign in northwestern and southwestern Cameroon a year ago, citing allegations of discrimination and oppression by the country's French-speaking majority.
