Months after claiming victory in fraudulent elections, Cameroon’s regime imposed a constitutional change enabling the 93-year-old dictator Paul Biya to handpick a successor without a popular vote. HRF condemns this maneuver to keep power within the same illegitimate, corrupt, and repressive system that has ruled the country since independence.

On April 4, Cameroon’s National Assembly and Senate, which are dominated by the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, approved a constitutional amendment reintroducing the position of a vice president appointed and dismissed at the discretion of the president. In case of the president’s death, resignation, or incapacity, the vice president would automatically complete the presidential term.

Opposition figures denounced the absence of any electoral mandate for the vice president and the lack of meaningful parliamentary debate ahead of the amendment’s adoption. They warned of a constitutional coup to engineer Biya’s succession: he would be 99 by the end of his term, and there are widespread concerns over his age and health, as well as concerns that he might appoint his son Franck to the vice presidency.