Coton Sports vs Real Madrid: Biya's ‘victory’ before final whistle!.

It will be an absurd political play with a gigantic setting in which things will not be what they seem and words not meant what they are designed to convey.

First, the electoral process has since the first multi-party presidential election in Cameroon, in October 1992, been criticised by credible election observers like the Commonwealth, European Union, EU; National Democratic Institute, NDI; as crafted to favour the ruling party.

The above election observers usually pay for their missions to Cameroon. For some unexplained reasons, they were absent at the October 12 poll. The two who came from Africa, did so at the invitation of Yaounde.

By invitation, it implied that taxpayers bank rolled their bills! And as it is often said, he who pays the piper dictates the tone.

The Catholic Church, whose observers would have cost nothing to the government, was allowed the possibility to provide only 202 of their observers; accredited by the Ministry of Territorial Administration, MINAT, just about half of what the men of God wanted. 

It goes without saying that the international independent observers of mettle just stayed away because there was no need to spend their money to come and repeat the same recommendations over and over without them being implemented.

They had advised that for a credible election that ensures justice and peace there should be: a single ballot; reduction of voting age to 18; one term renewable once for presidential job and two rounds of election, if the winner scores less than 50 percent and, legal recognition of all results from polling booths.

The other recommendation was the independence of ELECAM, to be answerable to Parliament, who should appoint all members and be empowered to declare results while the Constitutional Council handles only litigations, if any.  

Those are unresolved issues that favour the ruling party candidates in every election, making the playing field bumpy with partiality so transparent, even for the blind to see.

But when the voting process is observed, it is almost flawless. However, to borrow from Joseph Stalin: “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote, decide everything”.

It is on that ground that the former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Peter Nagy Jr., made a scathing rebuke of Cameroon’s electoral system, describing it as a mere façade designed to conceal entrenched authoritarian rule.

In an interview with international reporters ahead of the Cameroon poll, he said: "If you look at Cameroon from the front, it looks like a democracy with all the institutions of elections. But if you open the door and look behind, you start shaking your head."

Tibor Nagy dismissed the prevailing perception that electoral malpractices in Cameroon primarily occurs on voting day. Instead, he stressed that systemic manipulation occurs both before ballots are cast and after results are declared at polling stations.

Before the October 12 poll, given the incumbent's old age and criticism that he was unable to rule and governs only by proxy, Prof Felix Zogo, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Communication, said on television that "even in a wheelchair, President Biya will win.”

At a press conference, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji, one of the "trinities" of the electoral process, asked: "When there is a match between Coton Sport and Real Madrid, who do you think will win? Bookmakers won't bank on Coton Sport, the underdog from a divided opposition. 

Later, the Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo, who doubles as Communication Secretary of the CPDM, said at a book launch in Yaounde that: “If Paul Biya did not exist, he would have to be invented because he gives us hope”.

Reading through the lines, the winner was known before October 12. This means Monday’s official proclamation is just a formality.

Optimists of change were only expecting a miracle, which is left for those with consciences that have not been mortgaged to testify before the Creator, if their dream came true and was "stolen".

As expected, the long-poisoned knives that were sheathed by barons of the regime to fight the opposition at the poll will now come out ready for the fight.

The hushed competition of loyalty, battle for positioning and succession are the real battles which Jeune Afrique calls "clan war for succession".

It will be fought fiercely by those with huge appetite for power. Jeune Afrique noted that in the past, discussing the future after Biya was like "a crime of lèse-majesté. A moral betrayal".

But it will not, after the proclamation of the results. There will be more Léon Theiller Onanas in open battles within the ruling party for power.

The infighting will inevitably continue, especially as it will require a miracle for Biya, who just managed to hold one campaign rally, to rule till the age of 100, when the new mandate should end.

There are, however, speculations that the Constitution could be tinkered to introduce a Vice President post. 

How that works out is left to be seen at the end of the clan war in which the winner will not be determined by the unholy trinity of MINAT, ELECAM and the Constitutional Council, but by the Central Committee of the ruling party and its obsessed majority in the legislature. That is if the coming twin elections do not trim it to its actual weight.

Before then, if the projections come to pass, how does the country get out from its current exacerbation of political polarisation, amplified by algorithms that reinforce clan sentiments to allow the best people to rise to the top?

Whoever wins the war should be ready to provide opportunities where all are equal before the law and where all the rules are honest and transparent, and the same for everyone.

As the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, "...we need people in power who will serve the people. This is why I really do not want my pictures in your offices, for the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your kids' photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision".

Zelenskiy referred to his country but it is the foundation of justice, peace, security, development and unity in all democracies.

The ball is now in Biya's court to determine how he mediates in an internal CPDM war of succession, after ‘winning’ the electoral battle of October 12, 2025.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3603 of Thursday October 23, 2025