Cameroon’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment restoring the position of vice president after more than five decades, in a move widely seen as the 93-year-old President Paul Biya’s effort to control who succeeds him as the world’s oldest serving head of state.
In a joint session of the ruling party-dominated National Assembly and Senate on Saturday, April 4, 2026, lawmakers voted 200 to 18 in favour of the bill, with four abstentions. Biya now has 15 days to formally sign the legislation into law.
Under the bill, the vice president will be appointed and dismissed solely by the president and will serve for a duration not exceeding the president’s seven-year term. Should Biya die, resign, or become permanently incapacitated, the vice president would automatically assume the presidency to complete the remaining mandate. However, the interim leader would be barred from initiating constitutional changes or contesting a subsequent presidential election.
Biya has led the oil and cocoa-producing Central African country since 1982. Public discussion of his health is banned under Cameroonian law.
The vice presidency was previously part of Cameroon’s governance structure but was abolished in 1984 when the office of Prime Minister replaced it. The constitutional bill was tabled before an emergency joint congressional session just two days before the vote, on April 2, 2026.
The reform flows directly from a pledge Biya made during his swearing-in ceremony on November 6, 2025, when he said he would submit institutional reforms to parliament to adapt state structures to evolving national demands.
The government has framed the amendment as a safeguard for institutional stability, but opposition lawmakers have condemned both its content and the speed of its passage. Joshua Osih, a member of parliament and chairperson of the opposition Social Democratic Front, said the changes weaken legitimacy, reinforce centralisation, and ignore a major historical grievance. He called 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.
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.
More than 70 percent 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 civil conflict that has torn the country’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions since 2017 adds further political weight to the question of who will lead Cameroon next.
