Cameroon sets date for twice-delayed legislative and local elections

According to Cameroon's President Paul Biya has, legislative and local elections will be held in the country on February 7 next year.

Key points

• Last month, the authorities suspended the Cameroon National Salvation Front (FSNC), the party of defeated opposition presidential candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary.
• Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, is the world's oldest head of state.
• Biya, who is 93, created the announcement in a decree read on public radio on Monday.
• In late August, Biya returned to Yaounde after more than two months in Geneva, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition.
• His re-election in October last year set off widespread protests that the authorities met with a violent crackdown.

For context, 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.

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

Biya's administration 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.

Notably, the country is additionally awaiting a administration reshuffle confirmed almost a year ago and the appointment of a vice president. A constitutional reform reintroduced the post in April, and its holder would be projected to succeed Biya in the event of his death.

Questions regarding the president's health have continued to swirl, with his frequent stays abroad fuelling debate over his ability to govern. When rumours circulated regarding his death, media debate regarding the president's health, even so, has been banned since 2024.

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

In short, cameroon sets date for twice-delayed legislative and local elections is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.