Cameroon’s opposition leader Issa Chiroma Bakri, who has declared himself the winner of the October 12 election, told the BBC he would not accept stolen votes, with the results due to be announced on Monday.
He says his team has compiled an overall picture based on results from individual polling stations, so there is no doubt.
Tchiroma Bakari, 76, is a former government minister who broke with President Paul Biya, 92, who is seeking another term after 43 years in power.
The ruling party has dismissed Tchiroma Bakri’s claims of victory, and many officials have described them as illegitimate because only the Constitutional Council can declare an official result.
Tchiroma Bakri said he urged his supporters to protect their votes, adding: “We will never accept that anyone stole their votes.”
He said he was not worried about being arrested or jailed, “but I know I have already won the presidential election”.
“There is no doubt, no shadow of a doubt. My victory is undisputed,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
He said the ruling CPDM party had its “back against the wall” and could not accept the reality of the vote and challenged them to show if what they were saying about the election was wrong.
He defended his decision to declare himself the winner, insisting that the law “doesn’t prevent us from doing that”.
Tensions have been rising over the delayed announcement of election results, separatist clashes in Anglophone regions and fears of post-election violence in a country already rocked by the Boko Haram insurgency in remote Uttar Pradesh.
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