Cameroon sets date for twice-delayed legislative and local elections

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has announced that legislative and local elections will be held in the country on February 7 next year.

Biya, who is 93, made the announcement in a decree read on public radio on Monday.

The decree comes at a tense moment for Cameroon, with authorities cracking down on the opposition, roughly a year after an election that handed Biya another term.

Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, is the world’s oldest head of state.

His re-election in October last year set off widespread protests that the authorities met with a violent crackdown.

Lawyers cited by Human Rights Watch said security forces detained up to 2,000 people, and some of those detained remain in custody, according to the AFP news agency.

Biya’s government has already postponed Cameroon’s legislative and local elections twice, forcing the extension of lawmakers’ terms to December 20 and those of municipal councillors to February 28, 2027.

The country is also awaiting a government reshuffle announced nearly a year ago and the appointment of a vice president. A constitutional reform reintroduced the post in April, and its holder would be expected to succeed Biya in the event of his death.

Questions about the president’s health have continued to swirl, with his frequent stays abroad fuelling debate over his ability to govern. Media debate about the president’s health, however, has been banned since 2024, when rumours circulated about his death.

In late August, Biya returned to Yaounde after more than two months in Geneva, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition.

Last month, the authorities suspended the Cameroon National Salvation Front (FSNC), the party of defeated opposition presidential candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary.

Bakary went into exile in the Gambia after declaring himself the election winner and calling on supporters to defend his “victory”.