Cameroon's 93-Year-Old Leader Biya Wins Eighth Term, Names First Deputy

Paul Biya, the world's oldest serving head of state at 93, has cemented his grip on Cameroon with two seismic developments arriving in quick succession: a disputed eighth electoral victory and a parliamentary vote that, for the first time in his 43-year rule, will place a deputy directly in his line of succession.

Cameroon's parliament voted 200 to 18 on Friday to approve Bill N° 2094/PJL/P, a constitutional reform reintroducing the position of Vice President, which the country had abolished in 1984 and replaced with the office of Prime Minister. The bill had been tabled before a joint emergency congress of the National Assembly and Senate just two days earlier, on 2 April. Biya now has 15 days to formally promulgate the legislation. Under the revised constitution, specifically Articles 5, 6, 7, 10, 53, and 66, the Vice President would be appointed and dismissed solely at the president's discretion and would automatically assume the presidency in the event of Biya's death, resignation, or permanent incapacity, with no requirement to hold fresh elections.

The reform comes roughly six months after Biya secured 53.66% of the vote in the 12 October 2025 single-round presidential election, defeating ten challengers, including runner-up Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who finished with 35.19%, according to the Constitutional Council. Multiple opposition parties alleged electoral irregularities and unsuccessfully contested the results, a pattern repeated across Biya's previous seven victories dating back to 1984. If he serves the full term, he will remain in office until at least 2032.

Biya first came to power on 6 November 1982 following the resignation of Cameroon's founding president, Ahmadou Ahidjo. A 2008 constitutional amendment abolished term limits, removing the last formal constraint on his tenure. More than 70% of Cameroon's nearly 30 million citizens are under 35, meaning the majority of the population has known no other leader. Biya spends much of his time in Europe, leaving day-to-day governance to senior party officials and family members, a practice that has long fuelled questions about who actually runs the country.

The government framed the vice-presidential amendment as a measure ensuring institutional stability. The ruling RDPC majority showed no appetite for dissent in the joint session. But the opposition was pointed in its condemnation. Joshua Osih, the Social Democratic Front chairperson and MP, submitted Amendment No. 001 on behalf of the SDF calling for the president and vice president to be jointly elected on a single popular ticket, mandatorily mixed between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon. The RDPC rejected the proposal without substantive debate. "This text weakens legitimacy, reinforces centralisation, and ignores a major historical grievance," Osih said, calling the bill a missed opportunity to advance national unity. Samuel Hiram Iyodi, who stood as a presidential candidate in October 2025, described the day of the vote as "a dark day for Cameroonian democracy," arguing that a vice president installed by presidential appointment rather than popular election would lack democratic legitimacy.

The Anglophone grievance Osih referenced is not abstract. A civil conflict that erupted in 2017 between the government and separatist groups in Cameroon's English-speaking northwest and southwest regions has cost thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands more, making the question of regional representation in the line of succession politically charged. Several opposition figures have speculated openly that the reform is designed to ease the path for Franck Biya, the president's son, born in 1971, who is widely regarded as the likeliest candidate for the newly created post.