As if time has no effect on him, Cameroonian President Paul Biya is once again running as a candidate for a new presidential term on Sunday, October 12, 43 years after he first came to power. Yet times have changed, and it now seems clear that Biya's government had not anticipated the political wave of popularity that opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary is now riding high on. Born in Garoua, the biggest city in northern Cameroon, Tchiroma Bakary was once one of Biya's staunch allies. Yet he left the sinking ship of Biya's government to launch his own presidential bid.

Many in Garoua would like to believe that election day will see a political sweep through Cameroon and topple the regime, which has grown just as old as its leader. Should Biya win again on Sunday, he would reach 99 years old at the end of what would be his eighth term in office – a world record. Admittedly, Garoua, the capital of the North region, which, together with the Adamaoua and Far North regions, until recently formed a single administrative entity that represented a third of the total national electorate, is hardly a perfect electoral bellwether for predicting results from Cameroon's roughly 36,000 polling stations and eight million voters.

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