The Constitutional Council in Cameroon has declared  incumbent president, Paul Biya, the winner of the October 7 presidential election in the country.

The announcement follows two weeks of political tension in the coffee and oil-producing country, during which Biya’s leading rival, Maurice Kamto claimed victory based on his campaign’s figures, and as police tried to silence opposition marches in the port city of Douala.

In Monday’s proclamation, the court’s president, Clement Atangana declared the 85-year-old president emerged victorious with a resounding lead of 71% of votes cast to defeat eight other challengers.

Atangana added that the election was free, fair and credible despite a few security challenges in the English speaking regions.

According to the country’s Electoral Commission in Cameroon (ELECAM) Biya, who came to power in 1982 has got nearly 80% of the total votes with almost all votes counted in the 10 regions of the country.

ELECAM said Biya garnered 71.28 percent of the total cast ballot of 3, 537, 965 while his closest rival, Maurice Kamto, who had claimed victory based on his campaign’s figures got 14.23%.

A breakdown of the results showed that Biya won 79.77% of the votes in Adamawa region, 88.21% in Extreme North, 81.76% in North West, 35.75% in Litoral, 77.69% In South West, 48.19% in the West, 92.91% in the South, 71.10% in Central Cameroon, 81.62% in the North and 90.43% in the East.

The widely-expected win gives Biya a seventh term in office and could see him in power until he clocks the age of 92. The only current African president to have ruled longer is Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.