As campaigning starts on Saturday for Cameroon’s presidential election, the nation is puzzling over the whereabouts of the lead candidate: its 92-year-old leader, Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state.
In power since 1982 and seeking an eighth term in office in the October 12 polls, Biya left the central African country on Sunday for a “private trip to Europe”, his office said, without elaborating.
Diplomatic sources said the leader, who is rarely seen in public, was in Geneva, his favourite destination for personal visits, with protesters camping outside the United Nations headquarters in the Swiss city on Friday to voice their anger at Biya.
The trip comes a week after his daughter Brenda called on Cameroonians not to vote for him, in a TikTok video that she later retracted.
A weeks-long trip to Switzerland by Biya last September had fuelled rumours of his death, forcing the government to issue a statement reassuring the public about his health.
This time, Biya appeared in good health in a video of his departure released by the presidency, showing him accompanied by his wife Chantal and three advisers.
But the president was absent on Thursday from his scheduled appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, instead represented by his foreign minister.
– ‘Illusion’ of health –
Biya is set to contend for another seven-year term against 11 other candidates.
His RDPC party is rumoured to have scheduled a rally on Sunday in the northern city of Maroua.
The party has not confirmed how many events it will organise and whether Biya will participate.
He announced his candidacy on July 13 on X but has not directly addressed his fellow citizens since.
“Initially, there were rumours that the president himself was not very motivated to run again,” and that his aides pushed him to do so, said Arrey Elvis Ntui, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.
David Kiwuwa, head of the School of International Studies at the University of Nottingham’s China campus, pointed to Biya’s age and health.
“The more he stays out of the public eye, the more he maintains the illusion that he is mentally and physically suited for the office,” Kiwuwa said.
The opposition, meanwhile, had failed to name a consensus candidate, Maurice Kamto, Biya’s top opponent and runner up in the 2018 election, said on Friday.
“Many Cameroonians are frustrated that the opposition, which has been trying for nearly 30 years to replace President Biya, is still unable at this stage to agree,” said Ntui.
– Criticised by daughter –
With the opposition divided, Biya is favourite to win the election — despite the recent embarrassment involving his daughter.
Late on September 17, Brenda Biya, a regular at the luxury InterContinental hotel in Geneva, published her shock video on TikTok, calling on voters to abandon her father.
It circulated widely before being deleted from her account, sparking a wave of reactions that prompted her to post an apology days later.
“I know nothing about politics. Don’t follow my advice,” she said in the follow-up video on September 21.
Brenda Biya has also faced legal troubles, having been convicted of defaming a Cameroonian-Nigerian artist who accused her of insults and lies on social media.
The judgement noted that her family “frequently stays at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva, where rooms are rented year-round”.
A 2018 investigation of economic crime by a consortium of journalists found Paul Biya had spent some 4.5 years of his presidency abroad, largely in Switzerland, at an estimated cost of $65 million.
– ‘Re-elected by default’ –
Protesters against Biya’s latest stay in Switzerland heeded a call by an association of Cameroonians in Europe Friday to rally in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva, chanting “Biya murderer” in the pouring rain.
The demonstration was initially organised to denounce opposition leader Kamto’s barring from the presidential ballot, but took on a new dimension.
Laurent, who came from Frankfurt in Germany to attend the protest, told AFP he was angry at Kamto’s rejection and Biya’s absence from the campaign trail.
“We’re getting the impression that the election is already stitched-up and that Paul Biya will be re-elected by default,” he said.
Diosky Moresmo, spokesperson for a Cameroonian diaspora association in Belgium, told AFP the protest wanted “to chase Paul Biya out of Europe”, criticising the president for spending the “the money of the Cameroonian people”, who have “no water, no electricity, no hospitals”, on the visits.
Nearly a quarter of Cameroon’s population lives under the poverty line, according to the World Bank.
“Every day, Cameroonians die,” the protest group said.
“How can he rest peacefully in Geneva, at taxpayers’ expense, while his people suffer?”
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