Cameroon’s legislative body has voted decisively to establish a vice presidential position, marking the first significant constitutional change in the Central African nation since 2008.
During a combined meeting of both legislative chambers on Saturday, lawmakers cast 200 votes in favor of the constitutional modification, with only 18 opposing and four choosing not to vote. The ruling party holds dominant control in both the National Assembly and Senate.
Under the new constitutional framework, the vice president would immediately take over presidential duties should President Paul Biya pass away, step down, or become unable to serve. The 93-year-old leader has governed the oil and cocoa-rich nation for more than four decades since taking power in 1982, making him the globe’s eldest active head of government. Authorities prohibit public conversations about his medical condition.
The constitutional text, reviewed by news outlets, specifies that the president will have sole authority to select and remove the vice president, who would serve out the remaining portion of the president’s seven-year mandate. The temporary leader would face restrictions preventing them from altering the constitution or seeking election to the presidency afterward.
Government officials defend the reform as necessary to maintain governmental stability during unexpected leadership transitions. President Biya has two weeks to sign the legislation into law.
Opposition figures have denounced the amendment as harmful to democratic principles and an expansion of concentrated authority.
Joshua Osih, who serves in parliament and leads the opposition Social Democratic Front, characterized the modifications as a lost chance to strengthen national cohesion and democratic leadership in a country experiencing civil unrest since 2017.
“This text weakens legitimacy, reinforces centralisation, and ignores a major historical grievance,” Osih said, advocating instead for a system where the president and vice president are jointly elected, reflecting Cameroon’s origins as a union of British and French-administered territories.
The restoration of the vice presidential office represents Cameroon’s most substantial constitutional overhaul since 2008, when lawmakers eliminated presidential term restrictions in a decision that triggered widespread demonstrations and violent government suppression.
The vice presidential role had existed in Cameroon’s governmental framework previously but was eliminated in 1972 through a constitutional vote.
