Cameroon’s 85-year-old president, Paul Biya, has announced that he plans to run for a seventh consecutive term in office in the forthcoming October election.
Announcing his decision through his Twitter account, he said: “I will be your candidate in the next presidential election,”
It would leave him in rare company after former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh were ousted in 2017.
Of the current crop of African leaders, only Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled uninterrupted for longer. But Biya, who has been ruling for 35 years could rule for virtually the remainder of his life after scrapping term limits in 2008. He IS now free to run as many times as he wants.
The election, scheduled on Oct. 7, comes at a turbulent time for the Central African country and for Biya.