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The Cameroonian opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto, declared victory in Sunday's presidential election, but the party of incumbent President Paul Biya rejected this claim, saying it was whimsical and accusing him of breaking the law.
"I invite the outgoing president to organize a peaceful way of transferring power," said Kamto, who heads the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC), during a press conference held Monday in Yaoundé. .
The election, tainted by low voter turnout and isolated incidents of agitation in English-speaking separatist regions, is expected to greatly extend Biya's 36-year reign as one of the last African leaders for several years. decades.
"My mission was to take a penalty kick, I did it and I scored," said Kamto to the songs of "freedom" of enthusiastic supporters in an outdoor court. He did not submit any evidence to justify his claim of having won.
Labor Minister Gregoire Owona, deputy secretary general of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, Paul Biya, accused Kamto of breaking the law.
"It's not at all correct to announce it, it has not won anything, it's totally illegal," he said, adding that he was too early to tell if anyone had won.
"Kamto was not even represented in every polling station, [so] it was impossible for him to count all the votes, "he added.
Cameroon's government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary told Reuters that the government would "take action" against Kamto.
"The only body authorized to collect all the results and to publish the results is the constitutional council," he said, adding that they would be published within 15 days of the poll, in accordance with the law. "Everyone must respect the law."
The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, said Sunday that any form of challenge to the verdict of the Constitutional Council would "not be tolerated".
Cameroon, a major cocoa producer and also dependent on oil exports, has recorded economic growth of more than 4% a year since Biya's last election in 2011. However, many of its 24 million people live in the country. poverty and a two-year uprising in Cairo. English-speaking areas have killed hundreds of people and forced thousands to flee.
At that time, an Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram in the north of the country, which extended from neighboring Nigeria, had claimed many lives. The Cameroonian authorities fired for a cumbersome and sometimes blind approach to containing it – an online video is under investigation that appears to show men in military uniforms firing women and children.
Related: In Cameroon, gang violence is intensifying, residents are no longer safe
Kamto spokesman Olivier Nissack later said that since Kamto had given no figures, he had not broken any rules.
"Maurice Kamto has not proclaimed himself president, he claimed victory, it is not the same thing," he said.
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