Can the planet's most aged leader keep the title and attract a nation of young voters?
The planet's oldest leader - nonagenarian Paul Biya - has assured Cameroon's voters "the best is still to come" as he seeks his eighth straight presidential term this weekend.
The elderly leader has remained in office for over four decades - another seven-year mandate could keep him in power for half a century until he will be almost a century old.
Campaign Controversies
He ignored widespread calls to step down and faced criticism for making merely one rally, spending most of the political race on a 10-day unofficial journey to the European continent.
Negative reaction over his dependence on an artificial intelligence created political commercial, as his challengers actively wooed supporters on the ground, prompted his quick return north upon his arrival.
Youth Population and Joblessness
This indicates for the vast majority of the citizenry, Biya remains the sole leader they have known - more than sixty percent of Cameroon's thirty million people are younger than the age of 25.
Youthful campaigner Marie Flore Mboussi strongly desires "new blood" as she thinks "longevity in power naturally results in a kind of inertia".
"Following four decades, the population are weary," she states.
Employment challenges for youth has become a particular talking point for most of the candidates competing in the vote.
Approximately forty percent of youthful Cameroonians aged from 15-35 are jobless, with twenty-three percent of young graduates facing challenges in finding official jobs.
Opposition Candidates
Apart from young people's job issues, the election system has created dispute, notably concerning the disqualification of a political rival from the election contest.
The disqualification, upheld by the highest court, was generally denounced as a ploy to block any serious competition to President Biya.
12 candidates were authorized to vie for the presidency, comprising a former minister and Bello Bouba Maigari - the two ex- Biya colleagues from the northern region of the nation.
Voting Challenges
In Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest and South-West regions, where a protracted insurgency continues, an poll avoidance restriction has been established, halting commercial operations, travel and schooling.
The separatists who have enforced it have warned to attack people who casts a ballot.
Starting four years ago, those attempting to establish a breakaway state have been fighting official military.
The violence has to date caused the deaths of at minimum 6k lives and compelled nearly five hundred thousand others from their houses.
Vote Outcome
Once polling concludes, the highest court has 15 days to declare the results.
The interior minister has already warned that none of the contenders is allowed to announce winning in advance.
"Individuals who will seek to declare outcomes of the leadership vote or any unofficial win announcement contrary to the regulations of the nation would have broken rules and should be ready to encounter consequences commensurate to their violation."
