Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
The General Assumption Is That, FSNC Leader And Presidential Candidate, ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY, Apparently Won The October 12, 2025 Presidential Election. But The One Big Problem That TCHIROMA Faced Was That, He Did Not Have Up To A Third Of Polling Agents In The Total Of 31,545 Polling Stations, And Thus Did Not Have Enough Return Reports (PVs), To Justify His ‘Victory”.
The official result of the October 12, 2025 presidential election that was proclaimed by the Constitutional Council on October 27, 2025, giving victory to the incumbent, 93 year old President Paul Biya, who has been in power for over four decades, was strongly contested by the FSNC leader and presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, and his supporters.
It would be recalled that less than 48 hours after polls closed in the October 12 presidential election, Issa Tchiroma, who resigned from the Biya’s Government on June 24, 2025, that is, less than four months before the presidential election, declared himself winner of the election. An act which the Biya Government denounced as a gross violation of the Law, as the Law states that only the Constitutional Council has the authority to officially declare the result of the presidential election.
The First Promise That Issa Tchiroma Bakary Made To His Supporters
“In the coming days, I will share with you a detailed report of your votes by regions, as compiled from the results publicly posted, in accordance with Article 113 of the Electoral Code, in polling stations across the country and in the diaspora. The results deeply moved me; they show that this victory goes beyond my person. It is a clear sanction of the regime in place, and a plebiscite in favour of immediate change, because the victory is overwhelming”.
The above is an excerpt of the declaration that Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the FSNC leader and candidate at the October 12, 2025 presidential election, made in the night of Monday October 13 breaking Tuesday, October 14, 2025, when he unilaterally declared that he had won the presidential election. Tchiroma promised his supporters, a detailed report of votes by regions, to show how he clearly won the election. This of course gave the impression that Tchiroma and his team had the return reports commonly known in Cameroon as PV (‘Proces – Verbal’) from all the polling stations in the October 12 presidential election.
There Was Officially, A Total Of 31,545 Polling Stations
It should be noted that the Managing Director of Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), Dr Essousse Erik, in a communiqué issued on October 9, 2025, that is, three days before the October 12 presidential election, disclosed that there were a total 31,653 polling stations for the election. 108 of these polling stations were in the diaspora, meaning that the total number of polling stations across Cameroon, or better still, in the 10 regions of the country, for the October 12 presidential election, was 31,545. This meant that to have representatives or polling agents at all the polling stations, in all the 10 regions of the country, a presidential candidate or his party, was supposed to deploy 31,545 polling agents. It also meant that to provide the detailed reports or results of votes, region by region, as Tchiroma promised, his team should have been in possession of the total 31,545 PVs, from the 31,545 polling stations, in the 10 regions of the country.
Number Of Registered Voters For October 12, 2025 Presidential Election
It would be recalled that the Managing Director of ELECAM, Dr Essousse Erik, in the communiqué he issued on October 9, 2025, that is, three days before the October 12 presidential election, clearly stated that the total number of registered voters for the election in the country and the diaspora, stood at 8,010,464 (Eight million, ten thousand, four hundred and sixty four) registered voters. This was a significant increase from the number at the 2018 presidential election, which was a total of 6,667,754 (Six million, six hundred and sixty seven thousand, seven hundred and fifty four) registered voters.
Meanwhile, according to the statistics contained in the release that the Managing Director of ELECAM, Dr Essousse Erik, issued on October 9, 2025, the total of 8, 010, 464 (Eight million, ten thousand , four hundred and sixty four) registered voters for the October 12 presidential election, was comprised of 3,716,567 women, and 4,293,897 men. Also, the total number of registered voters in the diaspora stood at 34,411. Now, if we subtract the number of registered voters in the diaspora which was 34,411, from the total number of registered voters at home and in the diaspora which stood at 8, 010,464, it will put the total number of registered voters across the country, or in the 10 regions, at the October 12 presidential election, at 7, 976, 053 (Seven million, nine hundred and seventy six thousand, and fifty three) registered voters.
Tchiroma Did Not Have Polling Agents In Up To Half Of The Polling Stations
Issa Tchiroma’s team for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, have never directly admitted that they had problems having all the PVs, because Tchiroma did not have polling agents in quite a number of polling stations, especially in the Southern part of the country, including even Douala. Reporters in the course of the voting day, observed in live TV reports, that Tchiroma did not have representatives at some polling stations in Douala. In fact the case of Douala was surprising to many observers, considering that the nation’s economic capital (Douala) is the biggest opposition strong hold in the country, in terms of population and registered voters, and thus the leading opposition candidate at a presidential election, normally pays special attention to Douala.
One of Issa Tchiroma’s lawyers (a French national), in a political debate programme that was focused on the presidential election in Cameroon, over a TV channel in Paris, France on Friday, October 25, 2025, and that had as moderator a renowned Cameroonian born journalist, Alain Foka, admitted that it was not possible for his client (Tchiroma) to have polling agents in all the polling stations across Cameroon. He attributed the situation to financial constraints. He said Tchiroma and his party did not have the same means like Paul Biya and his CPDM Party that, use State resources. The lawyer said it was for this reason that, his client (Issa Tchiroma) and his party (FSNC), decided to focus on a total of 18 Divisions in Cameroon that they selected, out of the total of 58 Divisions in the country, at the October 12, 2025 presidential election.
CPDM Got Information From ELECAM, That Tchiroma Did Not Have Many PVs
It would be recalled that soon after Issa Tchiroma Bakary declared himself the winner of the October 12, 2025 presidential election, the Deputy Secretary General of the ruling CPDM and member of Government, Gregoire Owona, who is known to be regular on social media, declared on social media that Tchiroma’s claim was false. He added that Tchiroma did not even have many return reports from polling stations commonly known in the country as PVs. The fact was that even before the polling day, the General Secretariat of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM, which is the party’s headquarters, had gotten some precise information about the opposition candidates, from the elections organizing body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM). ELECAM which is practical terms operates more like an organ of the ruling CPDM Party, had informed the ruling party on the number of polling agents that, each opposition candidate in the election had, and the different polling stations where the polling agents were assigned.
It should be noted that the list of the polling agents of each presidential candidate, is sent to ELECAM for validation, before the polling agents can have access into the polling stations on voting day. Issa Tchiroma allegedly had just a little over 5000 polling agents, out of the over 31,000 needed to cover all the polling stations across the country. So when Gregoire Owona said that Tchiroma did not have polling agents in a large majority of polling stations, he knew what he was saying. The CPDM had all information from their ally, ELECAM.
The Law Recognizes Only Official Return Reports (PVs)
In the absence of polling agents in many polling stations, Issa Tchiroma’s team and supporters, had mostly results or statistics that were filmed on the boards at different polling stations, immediately after the vote counting exercise ends. It should be noted that those results at polling stations that have not been tempered with, are in fact authentic results of the election.
But the problem is that those statistics written on the board during the vote counting exercise, though authentic, cannot be officially presented somewhere as genuine results from the polling station. The result that is recognized by Law is the result contained in the return report (PV) from a polling station. Normally, each PV in the possession of a polling agent, is, signed by the President of the polling station who is the representative of ELECAM, as well as by the representative of the Ministry of Territorial Administration at the polling station, and polling agents who are the representatives of the different presidential candidates, present at the polling station.
When a presidential candidate does not have return reports (PVs), from some polling stations, it also means that they do not have concrete evidences on the election result, from those polling stations. As aforementioned, the statistics from the vote counting exercise at polling stations, written on the boards in classrooms during the vote counting exercise, cannot be officially used anywhere. They are in the first place not signed by anybody. Also, the original statistics on vote counting at a polling station, written on a board in a classroom or wherever the polling station is located, can be easily falsified or changed, by the agents of some presidential candidates, or by some militants of their parties, or even by some rascals around.
