A Successor Not Yet Named

Cameroon’s constitution has provided for a vice president since April. Nobody holds the office. President Paul Biya, who is 93, returned to Yaoundé on 20 August after about ten weeks abroad, and as of Al Jazeera’s report on 17 October he had appointed neither a vice president nor the new government he promised in his address of 31 December 2025, when he said one would be formed “in the coming days.”

The delay is lawful. The amendment that created the office leaves the appointment to the President and, Al Jazeera reports, “does not set a deadline for filling the post.” What the vacancy changes is the succession rule the amendment was written to replace, which for now is still the one that would apply.

What the amendment says

Parliament, meeting in joint session, approved the amendment by 200 votes to 18 with four abstentions, Legalbrief reported, citing Business Day and a copy of the bill seen by Reuters. Al Jazeera gives its number as Law No. 2026/002, promulgated on 14 April; an analysis published by International IDEA’s ConstitutionNet calls it Law No. 2026/001 of the same date. The official gazette text was not available to this publication, and the account below relies on those reports.

Under the revised Article 5, ConstitutionNet writes, the President “is assisted by a Vice President, who is appointed by presidential decree,” and can dismiss him. The appointment needs no parliamentary confirmation. The revised Article 6 deals with a vacancy caused by death, resignation or permanent incapacity. It provides, in the English text ConstitutionNet quotes, that “the Vice-President of the Republic shall be sworn in before Parliament meeting in Congress. He shall complete the remainder of the term of office of the President of the Republic.” According to the Reuters account relayed by Legalbrief, a vice president who succeeds in this way may not initiate constitutional changes or stand in the next election.

The rule it replaced

Before April, a vacancy in the presidency went to the President of the Senate on an interim basis. Article 6(4) of the 1996 constitution, as ConstitutionNet quotes it, required that “the polls for the election of the new President of the Republic must be held not less than twenty (20) days and not more than one hundred and twenty (120) days after the office becomes vacant.” The amendment removes that election. A successor appointed by decree would serve out the rest of a seven-year term instead.

The amendment also keeps a fallback. Where both the presidency and the vice presidency are vacant, ConstitutionNet writes, the President of the Senate assumes interim authority “pending the organization of elections.” Read with the office empty, as this publication reads ConstitutionNet’s account of the text, that clause describes Cameroon today. With no vice president in office, a vacancy in the presidency would go to the President of the Senate and lead to an election, the arrangement the reform was presented as ending. The new route to succession exists on paper and becomes operative only when the President signs a decree naming someone to it.

The arguments about the wait

The government says the timing is the President’s to choose. The communication minister, René Emmanuel Sadi, told RFI in August that “it is surely quite normal for him to take his time when entrusting such a high office to one of his fellow citizens,” Al Jazeera reported. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, a former minister who coordinates the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement’s academy, said citizens’ concerns were legitimate but that the President had the constitutional prerogative to act when he chose.

Cabral Libii, who leads the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation and was an opposition figure in the 2025 presidential election, has argued the opposite. “The vice presidency is not just another administrative post to be filled. Appointing your vice president means securing your leadership,” he said in a public appeal quoted by Al Jazeera. Jason Healy, a country risk analyst at BMI, part of Fitch Solutions, suggested that delaying the appointments could be a political calculation that lets Biya keep control over their timing and composition.

The office has already produced one false start. In June, an individual delivered a sealed envelope to the state broadcaster, CRTV, containing what purported to be a presidential decree appointing a vice president, Al Jazeera reported. The government said in a statement published by the state newspaper Cameroon Tribune on 1 July that the document had not been issued through the proper official process, and that the person had been detained and an investigation opened. CRTV did not broadcast its contents.

What is not known

The sources do not say whom Biya is considering, whether a decree has been drafted, or when the new government he promised in December will be named. The presidency did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. The opposition proposals ConstitutionNet describes, including a running mate elected on the same ticket as the President, were not adopted.

Biya has led Cameroon since 1982. The amendment gives him the power to choose the person who would complete his term. Until he uses it, the constitution still answers the question of succession the old way, with an election.