One of Africa’s oldest leaders Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist since 1982, won a landslide victory Monday in a controversial presidential election, as the government tightened security and gunfire erupted in the volatile Anglophone region.

The Constitutional Council, dominated by Biya loyalists, on Monday said the 85-year-old leader had won 71.3 percent of the ballot in the October 7 election, marred by allegations of widespread fraud, a low turnout and violence in the poll run-up.

The Council’s head Clement Atangana said opposition challenger Maurice Kamto, was a far second with 14.2 percent of the vote.

"Today, we cannot imagine a scenario where Mr. Biya will quit power normally," said political expert Stephane Akoa.

"If Mr Biya thought about alternating power or democracy, he would not have put in place this machinery … whose main task is modify the results in such a way that Mr. Biya is the inevitable winner," he said.

Voting was disrupted in Francophone Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, where a separatist movement has unleashed a brutal government crackdown. Turnout here was below five percent, according to the International Crisis Group think tank.

Paul Biya and his wife Chantal Biya arrive to cast their votes at a polling station during presidential elections in Yaounde on October 7Credit:
 Anadolu Agency

Witnesses on Monday told AFP of gunfire during the morning in Buea, capital of the English-speaking Southwest region, which has been rocked by violence for months.

The Constitutional Council had 15 days after the vote to weigh up objections filed concerning the election. It rejected all 18 complaints. The final results can no longer be challenged.

Biya notably won 79.7 percent of the vote in Adamaoua, 71.1 percent in the Centre and 90.4 percent in the East, the Council said.

AFP journalists reported tight security around the main post office in the capital Yaounde after calls on social media for a protest rally against the results.

Anti-riot police trucks and security forces were deployed across the area.

Authorities on Sunday had banned an opposition march in the commercial capital Douala called to denounce the "shameful and massive fraud" in the election. About 30 people were arrested on the spot, AFP journalists reported.

Kamto, who pronounced himself the winner of the vote before even the first results were announced – leading the government to brand him an outlaw – has alleged that six of the 11 members of the Constitutional Council were biased in Biya’s favour.

Kamto was Monday declared the winner in the Littoral province – the only one not won by Biya – where he got 38.6 percent of the vote. The province is home to the country’s commercial capital Douala.

Biya’s main challenger has also called for the vote to be annulled in seven of the country’s 10 regions, citing "multiple irregularities, serious cases of fraud and multiple violations of the law".

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