Waiting for results proclamation with uncertainty, fear!.

The main decisions the Constitutional Council took, when it sat last Wednesday, was rejecting the petition of Hermine Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya of the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU, and eight others.

The lone female candidate in a race of 10, in her complaint, had demanded the cancellation of the election, on claims that there were irregularities that affected the credibility of the entire process.

Other contestants like Osih Joshua and Cabral Libii, had also filed complaints, citing various electoral flaws but at the last minute, withdrew them without any explanation!

Eyebrows were raised, especially when Osih said before the campaign that the SDF had representatives in all polling stations across the country. 

The Council rejected 10 petitions containing allegations of ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation and other irregularities, citing insufficient evidence or lack of jurisdiction to annul the election.

Issa Tchiroma refused to submit a petition with the Council, and has warned that he will not accept any results that do not favour him. 

Meantime, many voters and a cross-section of the population have since taken to social media platforms expressing misgivings about the poll.

In the cacophony, reports emerged, curiously showing the incumbent Paul Biya, leading with 2, 474,179 votes, which represent 53.66 percent of votes cast. The same reports gave Tchiroma 1,622, 334 votes with 35.19 percent.

While the Constitutional Council was preparing to give its verdict, Tchiroma came out in a video saying "it is clear that we emerged victorious with a decisive margin - winning more than 50 percent of the valid votes”.

"If the Constitutional Council proclaims falsified and truncated results, it will be complicit in a breach of trust because the Cameroonian people by an overwhelming majority will never accept the Council validating ballot-rigging on a historic scale that is now known to the world...the people will not stand for it," he said in a Facebook video last Wednesday, adding that he was open to a peaceful transition.

Specifically, he claimed he scored 54.8%, as against Biya's 31%; following the polling station results from 18 Divisions that make up 80 percent of the electorate. 

In another outing, Tchiroma wrote on social media that "...the people can now celebrate their victory because we have won. We do not negotiate the freedom of a people who are opening up. It is I who extends my hand to you, take it for a peaceful transition".

He used the occasion to express condolences to the family of the young lady killed in electoral clashes in the North Region. 

"May Mrs. Zouhaira rest in peace, my condolences to her family. When people cling to power at the cost of lives and oppression, it never ends well...," he said. 

It is not just the blood of the lady that has been spilled because of the presidential election. That of a CPDM member of parliament for the Ako/Misaje Constituency, in Donga Mantung Division, North West Region; Hon Abe Michael, has also sullied the presidential electoral process.

It's a tragic irony. After campaigning for Biya, and securing a landslide victory for the CPDM candidate, he would've been rushing to Yaounde to join his party comrades in celebration; after today's results proclamation.

But it turned into the anguished, anger of murder and mourning. The Guardian Post sends condolences to his family and that of the teacher in Garoua, whose blood has been spilled because of the October 12 presidential poll.

While the nation awaits the official proclamation of the results, the atmosphere is toxic, with fear that more blood could floor, if the outcome does not reflect the will of the people.

The verdict should be based on "justice", a word many of those peaching peace have avoided in their political sermons. 

The Constitutional Council is beyond comedy. It has supreme authority. It has the legal prerogatives to investigate allegations of fabricated ballots and inflated figures, especially in the North West and South West Regions, where voters from some areas were astronomically beyond the resident population. Thank God the Constitutional Council is a court of justice, and should not be a court of law.

The results the Council is due to proclaim today, should reflect nothing but the will of the people so as to pre-empt further spilling of innocent blood in a country still grappling to end the macabre conflicts in the North West, South West and Far North Regions.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3607 of Monday October 26, 2025