Can the planet's oldest president keep the position and attract a country of young voters?

This planet's oldest leader - nonagenarian Paul Biya - has pledged the nation's electorate "the best is still to come" as he pursues his eighth straight presidential term this weekend.

The elderly leader has stayed in power since 1982 - an additional seven-year mandate could keep him in power for 50 years until he will be almost 100.

Election Controversies

He resisted broad demands to resign and has been criticised for only showing up for one rally, devoting much of the campaign period on a week-and-a-half private trip to the European continent.

Negative reaction regarding his reliance on an AI-generated political commercial, as his challengers courted voters directly, led to his hurried travel north on his return home.

Young Population and Joblessness

This indicates for the great bulk of the population, Biya is the only president they experienced - over sixty percent of the nation's thirty million people are below the 25 years old.

Young campaigner Marie Flore Mboussi is desperate for "fresh leadership" as she thinks "extended rule inevitably leads to a kind of laziness".

"Following four decades, the population are weary," she says.

Young people's joblessness has been a particular talking point for most of the candidates competing in the election.

Approximately forty percent of young residents between 15-35 are jobless, with twenty-three percent of young graduates encountering difficulties in obtaining official jobs.

Rival Candidates

Beyond youth unemployment, the electoral process has created debate, especially with the removal of an opposition leader from the election contest.

His exclusion, upheld by the legal authority, was widely criticised as a tactic to block any strong challenge to the current leader.

A dozen contenders were cleared to contest for the presidency, comprising Issa Tchiroma Bakary and a previous supporter - each ex- Biya allies from the north of the nation.

Election Challenges

In Cameroon's Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, where a long-running insurgency persists, an election boycott closure has been established, halting business activities, transport and education.

The separatists who have enforced it have promised to target people who participates.

Starting four years ago, those seeking to create a separate nation have been fighting official military.

The violence has to date caused the deaths of at no fewer than 6k people and forced nearly 500,000 people from their houses.

Election Results

Following the election, the legal body has 15 days to reveal the outcome.

The government official has already warned that no candidate is authorized to claim success beforehand.

"Those who will try to declare outcomes of the political race or any personal declaration of success in violation of the laws of the nation would have crossed the red line and must prepare to face consequences commensurate to their violation."