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The planet's most aged leader - 92-year-old Paul Biya - has promised Cameroon's electorate "the best is still to come" as he aims for his 8th straight presidential term this weekend.

The 92-year-old has stayed in office since 1982 - another 7-year term could see him rule for 50 years reaching almost 100.

Campaign Issues

He resisted broad demands to step down and has been criticised for making merely one public appearance, spending most of the election season on a week-and-a-half unofficial journey to Europe.

Negative reaction over his dependence on an artificial intelligence created political commercial, as his challengers actively wooed constituents in person, led to his hurried travel to the northern region after coming back.

Young Voters and Unemployment

Consequently for the great bulk of the citizenry, Biya is the only president they have known - more than sixty percent of Cameroon's 30 million residents are younger than the quarter century mark.

Young advocate Marie Flore Mboussi strongly desires "fresh leadership" as she maintains "prolonged leadership naturally results in a kind of complacency".

"Following four decades, the people are tired," she states.

Young people's joblessness has become a specific issue of concern for nearly all the candidates competing in the political race.

Nearly forty percent of young citizens between 15 to 35 years are jobless, with twenty-three percent of young graduates encountering difficulties in securing formal employment.

Rival Contenders

Apart from young people's job issues, the electoral process has created debate, especially with the exclusion of an opposition leader from the presidential race.

The removal, confirmed by the highest court, was broadly condemned as a tactic to stop any significant opposition to the incumbent.

Twelve contenders were cleared to contest for the country's top job, comprising an ex-government official and Bello Bouba Maigari - both ex- Biya colleagues from the northern region of the nation.

Voting Difficulties

In Cameroon's Anglophone Northwest and Southwest territories, where a protracted separatist conflict persists, an election boycott lockdown has been established, halting business activities, movement and learning.

The separatists who have imposed it have warned to attack individuals who participates.

Beginning in 2017, those seeking to create a breakaway state have been fighting official military.

The fighting has so far resulted in at no fewer than six thousand lives and forced almost 500,000 residents from their residences.

Election Results

After Sunday's vote, the highest court has two weeks to declare the results.

The security chief has earlier advised that no candidate is authorized to declare victory in advance.

"Individuals who will try to declare outcomes of the presidential election or any unofficial win announcement against the laws of the country would have violated boundaries and need to be prepared to encounter penalties matching their crime."