Faith Nyasuguta
When Cameroon holds its next presidential election, President Paul Biya will be 93 years old. Despite his advanced age, the country’s presidency has confirmed that he will once again contest the election on his ruling party’s ticket, as he has done in the past.
This decision, coupled with the move to delay the elections by a year, has ignited outrage among opposition politicians in Cameroon. Yet, these opponents may find themselves barred from contesting, leaving Biya a clear path to victory once again.
Cameroon’s parliament recently approved President Biya’s request to postpone the country’s parliamentary and municipal elections until 2026. The presidency argued that the crowded calendar of political events necessitated the delay to provide some breathing space.
Despite opposition challenges, the country’s 180-member National Assembly is overwhelmingly dominated by lawmakers from Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), holding 152 seats. These CPDM lawmakers voted in favor of extending their own mandates for an additional 12 months beyond the original expiration date of March 10, 2025.
In Cameroon, it is legal to extend the mandate of lawmakers. All it takes is for the president to ask parliament to approve such a proposal. However, for politicians opposed to Biya, this maneuver feels like a strategic landmine.
According to Article 121 of Cameroon’s electoral code, only political parties with representation in the National Assembly, Senate, Regional Council, or Municipal Council can nominate a presidential candidate. Independent candidates must be endorsed by at least 300 dignitaries from each of the country’s 10 administrative regions.
The last parliamentary and municipal elections saw most opposition parties boycotting what they termed a farce. This boycott could come back to haunt them. Typically, Cameroon holds legislative elections before presidential ones, with presidential candidates often emerging based on their parties’ legislative performances. Professor Maurice Kamto, Biya’s main challenger in the 2018 presidential election who secured 14.23% of the vote, lacks the necessary representation due to his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party boycotting the 2020 parliamentary and municipal elections.
Another potential challenger, Cabral Libii, one of the youngest candidates who secured 6.28% of the vote in 2018, was elected to parliament two years later. However, his position is uncertain due to internal conflicts within his party, the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN). The delay in elections may relieve the immediate pressure of an electoral calendar, but it leaves the opposition in a weakened state for the next presidential election.
With parliament’s approval, President Biya can now issue a decree extending the terms of municipal councilors for the same period, aligning with the electoral code. Consequently, the National Assembly and municipal councilor elections will now take place in 2026, following the presidential elections. François Bolvine Wakata, a lawmaker and Cameroon’s Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with Assemblies, stated that the postponement would simplify election planning.
“The extension was necessitated by the need to lighten the electoral calendar,” Wakata explained. “Organizing all four major elections—National Assembly, municipal councilors, President of the Republic, and regional councilors—within a single year is financially burdensome. Spreading them over two years, 2025 and 2026, is deemed more reasonable.”
Despite these explanations, the opposition views the extension as a tactical move to diminish any challenge to Biya in the upcoming presidential election. Since assuming power in 1982 following the resignation of Ahmadou Ahidjo, Biya has proven virtually unassailable. In the first multiparty elections a decade into his presidency, opposition leader Ni John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) garnered more than a third of the vote, the highest any opposition candidate has achieved.
Since then, Biya has consistently won with at least 70% of the vote, most recently securing 71.28% in October 2018 amid allegations of habitual rigging.
Joshua Osih, an opposition lawmaker and SDF national chairman, condemned the delay as a democratic misstep. “The SDF is strongly opposed to this mandate extension,” Osih declared in Yaoundé, noting that he secured only 3.35% of the vote in 2018, the party’s worst performance since 1992.
Akere Muna, another presidential aspirant in the last election, criticized the extension but acknowledged its legality. “There is no doubt that the move is designed to frustrate the political ambitions of many,” Muna stated. “Extending the mandate might be legal, but it is undemocratic. The people gave them a five-year mandate, and now they misuse the people’s trust.”
Recently, Paul Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s Minister for Territorial Administration, accused Kamto and Libii of attempting to disrupt the upcoming 2025 elections. “Any attempt to disrupt the electoral process today or tomorrow shall be dealt with squarely,” Nji warned during the opening of the first biennial Conference of Regional Governors in Yaoundé on July 3, 2024.
The bill to extend the National Assembly elections, according to the Presidency, was drafted in accordance with the Cameroon Constitution, which allows the President to request an extension in times of serious crisis or other significant circumstances. However, the specifics of the crisis or circumstances justifying this extension have not been disclosed. Some politicians are now calling for amendments to this part of the law to prevent it from being exploited for political advantage.
“At this juncture in the history of our country, it is more than obvious that we are faced with a regime that is desperate,” Muna remarked.
Cameroon has a history of extending mandates for local elected officials. The recent parliamentary bill marks the third such extension in 15 years. MPs and municipal councilors elected in 2007 for a five-year term received a one-year extension, as did those elected in 2013 and 2020. The future of the nation’s democracy hangs in the balance.
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