YAOUNDE (AFP) - Cameroon's main opposition parties said the central African country's presidential election was marred by "serious irregularities" and announced that they intend to ask for the result of the vote to be annulled.
"The Social Democratic Front will ask the constitutional court to annul this election ... which was very badly organised and resulted in massive fraud," Secretary-General Michel Tazoacha Asongany of the Anglophone party said Tuesday.
The presidential candidate of a separate coalition of opposition parties, Adamou Ndam Njoya, called the vote "a masquerade, with overt fraud throughout the country."
"We are gathering information to bring this affair before the courts, in the hope that the judiciary will do its job," Ndam Njoya said.
Territorial Administration Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya said earlier Tuesday that partial results showed John Fru Ndi, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) contender in the presidential race, to be in the lead in North-West Province, with the country's veteran leader Paul Biya leading in the other nine provinces.
Ndam Njoya was only able to "confirm his presence" in his home region of Noun, in the west of the country, Hamidou Yaya said, while insisting that he was basing his statements on "partial figures" and that "the constitutional court is the only body authorised to give the final figures."