Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest serving head of state at 92, will run for re-election in this year’s presidential vote on October 12, a post on the president’s X account has said.
“I am a candidate in the presidential election. Rest assured that my determination to serve you matches the urgency of the challenges we face,” the post on the official account said.
Biya, who is seeking a new term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100, came to power more than four decades ago in 1982, when his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned.
His health is the subject of frequent speculation, most recently last year when he disappeared from public view for 42 days. His re-election bid had been widely anticipated but not formally confirmed until yesterday’s social media post.
Biya had been posting regularly on his verified X handle in the build-up to the announcement.
In 2018, in a first, he also used social media to announce his candidacy for that year’s presidential contest, marking a rare direct engagement with the public on digital platforms.
Members of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement and other supporters have since last year publicly called for Biya to seek another term. But opposition parties and some civil society groups argue his long rule has stifled economic and democratic development.
&uuid=(email))