Cameroonian Presidential Election, 2004
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Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
on 11 October 2004. Incumbent
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Paul Biya Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo, 13 February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth Prime Minister of Cameroon, prime minister under Pre ...
was easily re-elected in an election which the opposition claimed had seen widespread
electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...
.


Background

Biya came to power in 1982 and by 2004 had ruled Cameroon for 22 years.
Multi-party democracy In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional r ...
was introduced for the 1992 election but Biya was accused of rigging the election to ensure victory. The last presidential election in 1997 saw Biya re-elected with 93% of the vote after opposition parties boycotted the election. The expectation before the 2004 election was that Biya would be re-elected to another term of office, with no chance that anyone else would be able or allowed to defeat him.


Candidates

After announcing that the presidential election would be held on 11 October, Biya confirmed on 16 September that he would stand for re-election. Before his announcement there had been calls from groups such as university lecturers and over 100 former
footballers A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
for him to stand again. Biya was opposed by 15 other candidates after the opposition failed to agree on a single candidate. A 10-party coalition nominated Adamou Ndam Njoya for the election, but his candidacy was rejected by the veteran opposition politician
John Fru Ndi Ni John Fru Ndi (7 July 1941 – 12 June 2023) was a Cameroonian politician who served as first and founding Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition party in Cameroon, from party foundation in 1990 to his death in 202 ...
who decided to stand as well. Fru Nidi said that he should have been selected instead of Njoya as Fru Nidi's Social Democratic Front had more elected members. Fru Ndi was an
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from western Cameroon who had stood in the 1992 election, while Adamou Ndam Njoya was a Muslim
francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...
from northern Cameroon. There were also reports that Biya backed some of the candidates so they could act as spoilers.


Campaign

Biya initially did not campaign in the election and only made his first campaign stop within the last week before polling day. Biya described his opponents as inexperienced and said that he was only person who could prevent anarchy in Cameroon. He also pledged to improve education, health and women's rights, as well as decentralising and developing industry and tourism. One of Biya's campaign slogans was "Free
mosquito net A mosquito net is a type of meshed curtain or cloth that is circumferentially draped over a bed or a sleeping area to offer the sleeper barrier protection against bites and stings from mosquitos, flies, and other pest insects, and thus a ...
s for pregnant mothers" but there was significant scepticism over the pledges made by Biya after the failure to achieve ones made in previous elections. The opposition candidates said that the government had mismanaged the economy and failed to address widespread poverty. John Fru Ndi attracted the most supporters to his rallies of any of the opposition candidates, with up to 30,000 attending his rally in
Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...
. He pledged to restore previous wage scales for workers, to reduce corruption and poverty, scrap fees at university and remove taxation from small businesses.


Conduct

Opposition candidates criticised the election as having seen significant amounts of multiple voting and that security forces had harassed opposition agents at
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s. They described the election as having been rigged and appealed to the
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to annul the results. However most international observers said that despite some shortcomings the election was mainly satisfactory. These included a group of former United States congressmen who called the election "fair and transparent"; however, the
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dissented and said that the election had seen many irregularities.


Results

On 25 October 2004 the Supreme Court confirmed the results and rejected the complaints from the opposition. The final results saw Biya secure 70.9% of the vote against 17.4% for his nearest rival John Fru Ndi.


References

{{Cameroonian elections
Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
Presidential elections in Cameroon
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...