Cameroon’s parliament on Saturday overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to reintroduce the position of Vice President, a measure the government says will ensure continuity but which the opposition say will consolidate executive power.<\/p>\n
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In a \u200cjoint session of the ruling party-dominated National Assembly and Senate, lawmakers voted 200 to 18 in favour, with four abstentions, to pass the bill.<\/p>\n
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The bill stipulates that the Vice President will automatically assume the Presidency if President Paul Biya dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated.<\/p>\n
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Biya, 93, has led the oil- and cocoa-producing Central African country since \u20601982 and is the world’s oldest serving head of state. Public discussion about his health is banned.<\/p>\n
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According to the legislation, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the Vice President will be appointed and dismissed by the President, serving for the remainder of the President’s seven-year term.<\/p>\n
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However, the interim leader would be prohibited from initiating constitutional changes or running in a subsequent election.<\/p>\n
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The government has argued that the reform is intended to safeguard institutional stability in case of a sudden leadership vacancy. Biya has 15 days to \u200cpromulgate \u2060the bill.<\/p>\n
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Critics, including opposition lawmakers, argue the amendment weakens democratic institutions and exacerbates centralisation.<\/p>\n
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Joshua Osih, a member of parliament and Chairperson of the opposition Social Democratic Front, said the changes were a missed opportunity to boost national unity and democratic governance in the nation torn by a civil conflict since \u20602017.<\/p>\n
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“This text weakens legitimacy, reinforces centralisation, and ignores a major historical grievance,” Osih said, calling instead for a system where the President and Vice President are jointly elected, reflecting Cameroon’s origins as a \u2060union of British and French-administered territories.<\/p>\n
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The reintroduction of the Vice Presidency marks Cameroon’s first major constitutional revision since 2008 when presidential term limits were scrapped in a move that \u2060sparked nationwide protests, which were met with a violent crackdown by security forces.<\/p>\n
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The Vice Presidency was previously part of Cameroon’s governance structure but was abolished in 1972 following a constitutional referendum.<\/p>\n
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–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13886,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30845","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Cameroon's parliament approved a constitutional amendment to reintroduce the position of Vice President","published_date":"2026-04-05 08:41:01","news_description":"Cameroon's parliament approved a constitutional amendment to reintroduce the position of Vice President","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30846,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30845\/revisions\/30846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}