92-Year-Old Biya wins Cameroon’s Presidential Poll

Ben Achi

Cameroon’s incumbent President, Paul Biya has been declared the winner of the country’s presidential election, which was concluded penultimate week.

Biya, 92, secured 53.66% of the vote, according to official results announced by the Constitutional Council on Monday, October 27, 2025.

A native of Cameroon's south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as prime minister.

He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter's surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup, in which he eliminated all of his major rivals.

Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the 1980s, later accepting the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s under serious pressure.

He nevertheless leads an authoritarian regime in Cameroon. He won the contentious 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plurality, single-ballot vote and was re-elected by large margins in 1997, 2004, 2011, and 2018.

Opposition politicians and Western governments have alleged voting irregularities and fraud on each of these occasions.

It is widely believed that the 1992 election was manipulated in his favour, and domestic and international observers have documented evidence of systemic electoral fraud in parliamentary and presidential elections under his administration.