Mohammed Iya was re-elected as president of the Cameroon Football Federation despite being under arrest for alleged financial mismanagement while in charge of the state-owned cotton company.
Iya's election for another term was confirmed by the federation in a statement late Wednesday but contested by his opponents, who said the election should not have gone ahead.
The vote also coincided with Iya's transfer from a defense department building to the Special Criminal Court earlier in the day. He was arrested at a Yaounde hotel on June 10 after being implicated in mismanagement while managing director at the Cotton Development Corporation, which state auditors say resulted in it losing about $19 million between 2005 and 2010.
Iya had already been fined and banned from holding a similar position for seven years after the auditors said he made costly mistakes, but could now face trial on more serious charges of mismanagement and embezzling money.
Iya has been in charge of Cameroon football since 1998 but has come under pressure to step down amid the allegations against him and the recent failures of Cameroon's national team, which failed to qualify for the 2012 and 2013 African Cups, a devastating blow for a country that was Africa's first World Cup quarterfinalist, in 1990.
The election was preceded by several crises meetings of delegates lasting hours and the federation head office where they met was cordoned off by security forces. An observer from FIFA was at one point stranded outside the building.
Iya's two opponents - Marlene Emvoutou, a former Africa representative of Qatar's Aspire football project, and first vice president John Begheni Ndeh - boycotted the vote and the federation rejected an offer from the sports ministry to set up an interim committee to take charge while regulations are rewritten and new elections held.
''There's not supposed to be any election,'' Ndeh said. ''All what they've done is completely of no consequence whatsoever. The texts clearly indicate that in case of vacancy at the helm, it's the first vice president who runs the structure. I did not convene the elective general assembly. So by law, it is illegal.''
One of Iya's supporters said his re-election was ''a victory for Cameroonian football.''
