A major shake-up is underway in Cameroon as President Paul Biya prepares to appoint a long-overdue vice president. After 43 years in power, Biya, who's 93 and the world's oldest serving head of state, is making a significant change to the country's constitution. The move was backed by the country's parliament in a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate, where 200 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill with just 18 opposing and four abstaining.
This constitutional change introduces a new position that will automatically take over the presidency if Biya dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated. The vice president will be appointed and dismissed by Biya and will serve for the remainder of his current seven-year term. However, there are some limitations on the vice president's powers: they won't be able to initiate constitutional changes or run in a future election.
It's worth noting that this change marks a significant shift from the previous system, where the leader of the Senate would temporarily take over in case of a vacancy. An election would then be held to fill the position. The Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, which has six representatives in parliament, was not on board with the reform. They had proposed a different model where the vice president would be jointly elected with the president, rather than appointed, and also sought a provision to reflect the country's linguistic split between English and French-speaking regions. According to SDF chairman Joshua Osih, this constitutional reform
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