Cameroon schedules delayed legislative and local elections for February 2027

President Paul Biya of Cameroon announced that legislative and local elections will take place on February 7, Al Jazeera reported. The announcement was made in a decree read on public radio on Monday. The decree schedules the polls after they were previously delayed twice. [1]

The election decree comes during a tense political climate in Cameroon. Al Jazeera reported that authorities are cracking down on the opposition roughly one year after the presidential election that granted Paul Biya another term. That presidential election took place in October of last year and triggered widespread protests that government authorities met with resistance. [1]

Paul Biya is 93 years old and serves as the world's oldest head of state, Al Jazeera reported. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Cameroon is governed from the capital of Yaoundé. Paul Biya has held power in Cameroon since November 6, 1982, through his political party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement. [1][3]

Cameroon faces ongoing internal conflict under Paul Biya's presidential system. An Anglophone crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions has continued since 2016. Separatist demands for autonomy in those regions escalated into armed conflict, causing at least 6,000 civilian deaths from abuses by both government forces and separatist groups. [3]