Cameroon's President Paul Biya will seek to extend his 29-year-old rule in October polls, after a party official filed the incumbent's official candidacy papers with the electoral commission Sunday.
The 78-year-old's re-election bid was officially registered at the headquarters of Elecam, the west African country's electoral commission.
"I have come to register candidate Biya's file. He is standing for the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement," party secretary general Rene Sadi told reporters.
Among the 34 other candidates known to have declared their intention to run in the October 9 presidential polls, one of Biya's top challengers will be John Fru Ndi, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Front.
Fru Ndi had accused Biya of stealing the vote in 1992. He ran and lost again in 2004 after snubbing the 1997 election.
Biya, now one of Africa's longest-standing heads of state, benefited from a 2008 constitutional amendment scrapping limits to presidential terms.
Opposition parties have urged him to step down.
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