TWO Cameroonian opposition figures and backers of presidential hopeful Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who challenged President Paul Biya’s 43-year grip on power in recent elections, have been arrested.
Biya, the world’s oldest serving head of state aged 92, has been in power since 1982 and has won every election in the past 20 years with more than 70 per cent of the vote but former employment minister Tchiroma generated unexpected enthusiasm among voters in the central African nation.
Anicet Ekane, leader of the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM), and Djeukam Tchameni of the Movement for Democracy and Interdependence (MDI) were detained in their homes on Friday, the Union for Change 2025 opposition grouping said in a statement.
They were held by “hooded and armed” members of an elite military force and taken to “an unknown destination,” the statement added.
MANIDEM and MDI are members of the Union for Change 2025 coalition that nominated Tchiroma for the October 12 election.
Although official results are not expected until Monday, Tchiroma claimed victory earlier this week.
Biya’s RDPC party has slammed Tchiroma’s victory claim as “a grotesque hoax” and an “unacceptable fraud in a state of law,” saying in a statement they were “calmly awaiting the official results”.
The Union for Change 2025 coalition denounced the “abusive arrests, whose clear aim is to intimidate (Cameroonians) who are waiting for the election results to be respected”.
Meanwhile, the MDI in a separate statement accused the government of “gross manipulation” and “political intimidation”.
It criticised the spread of “false information… suggesting that weapons or fake electoral records had been found at Tchameni’s home.”
Tchiroma, who claimed he won 54.8 per cent of the votes against Biya’s 31.3 percent, called on Cameroonians on Wednesday to protest if the Constitutional Council announces “falsified and distorted results”.
Officials on the same day banned public gatherings and the movement of motorcycle taxis in several cities.
Significant disruptions to internet access “could limit coverage of events on the ground amid calls to annul the presidential election results,” according to internet monitor NetBlocks.