Cameroon Elections: Washington Post and Tibor Nagy Slam Biya’s Fake Win

The full editorial can be read here: Click to read original article here

The paper notes that Cameroon’s median age is under 19 and more than 70 percent of its citizens have never known another president. It accuses the government of turning elections into rituals of control rather than moments of choice. “Biya’s victories have always been characterised by fraud, ballot-stuffing and intimidation,” the editorial writes, adding that Cameroon now symbolises the crisis of old men clinging to young nations.

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor P. Nagy shared the piece on X with a short comment that has since gone viral: “Scathing editorial in The Washington Post on Africa’s aging leaders using Biya’s ‘election’ as example. ‘Biya’s victories have always been characterised by widespread fraud…’ Amen.” Nagy had warned weeks before that Cameroon’s Constitutional Council was set to deliver a pre-written verdict favouring the incumbent.

While Yaoundé celebrated on state television, the data tells a different story. The original procès-verbaux collected by Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s team — authenticated copies from 83 percent of polling stations — show Tchiroma leading with 56.2 percent against Biya’s 41.8. The full archive has been made public for verification at Click to view original voting slips and cross-checked by independent observers and lawyers before security forces began seizing documents. The Constitutional Council has offered no audit or counter-evidence.

No major Western capital has recognised Biya’s victory. France, the United States, Germany, and the European Union remain silent, while Gabon’s interim leader Brice Oligui Nguema issued the only formal note of congratulation — a gesture that analysts describe as “a club of survivors protecting their own.” Even the French Ambassador was absent from the Constitutional Council ceremony, underscoring the depth of international unease.

Across Cameroon, streets tell a different story from official television. Demonstrators in Douala, Garoua, Bafoussam and Yaoundé continue to demand the truth of the ballot under a crackdown that has left dozens dead. Security forces fire live ammunition as others stand down rather than shoot at their own people. The nation is split between those mourning in the streets and those toasting at the palace.

Cameroon Concord analysis of international coverage shows a pattern of consensus: the vote was compromised, the arithmetic manipulated, and the leadership crisis deepening. The Washington Post’s portrait of Biya as a tired monarch in a young country captures the essence of a system that mistook longevity for legitimacy. Tibor Nagy’s public support for truthful results confirms that Cameroon’s struggle is no longer a domestic whisper but a global conversation about power, age, and accountability.