Paul Biya, 93, Jailed His Rivals and Now Calls It an Election

Ninety-three years old. Forty-odd years in power. An eighth term won in October 2025 after protests that left people dead and fraud claims that never got a fair hearing. And now, a decree announcing that Cameroonians will finally vote for parliament and local councils on 7 February 2027.

Ask yourself what kind of system needs a decree to tell its citizens when they are allowed to choose their representatives. Then ask why the people who wrote that decree are the same ones who locked up their challengers.

Let us be precise, because precision is the first thing dictators fear. In 2018, Paul Biya's government arrested and convicted hundreds of peaceful demonstrators. Among them was Maurice Kamto, a presidential rival and one of the most respected lawyers and academics the country has produced. Kamto's name was not the only one that disappeared behind bars. Hundreds of ordinary citizens who believed they had the right to protest were treated as criminals for asking the state to behave. Since then, the regime has dismantled the opposition piece by piece, and the 2025 presidential race ended with Kamto barred from running at all. The outcry was loud. The outcome was unchanged.

Now the regime wants to be seen holding elections. This is the old trick. Let the people line up. Let the state media print "See you on February 7" across its front page. Let the international community applaud the calendar and forget the cells.

Consider the institutions being asked to deliver this vote. The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, the RDPC, won 152 of the 180 seats in the National Assembly in 2020. It also controlled 316 of the country's 360 municipalities. The opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon boycotted that contest, and no one should pretend a boycott was a free choice in an environment where opposition leaders were jailed, exiled, or sidelined. When a party wins 85 percent of the parliamentary seats and 88 percent of the municipalities, that is not a sign of popular devotion. That is a sign that the referee and the team wear the same jersey.

The parliament now heading to the polls has already overstayed its welcome. Its members have served seven years, two beyond their constitutional term. Businessman Henri Etene put it plainly: "The country is completely bogged down on all fronts. Nothing works." He is not an activist. He is a man who pays taxes, meets payroll, and watches a state that cannot keep its own promises. Multiply his frustration by the millions of young Cameroonians who have never known a president who was not Paul Biya, and you begin to understand why the streets of Yaoundé greeted the announcement with something close to relief. Those young people have been told their whole lives that patience is patriotism. They are finished being patient.

Look north, where the political weather is shifting. The northern regions are a stronghold of Issa Tchiroma, a former government ally who is now in exile after his presidential campaign built real momentum. Analysts expect the RDPC to face its toughest contest there. That should terrify the regime, because it means the people have found a voice the state could not fully silence. Exile is itself a verdict on the system. When a government's most credible challengers must flee to speak, the government has already admitted that it cannot win an open argument.

Now we must speak to the wider continent, because Cameroon is not an isolated case. It is a warning. Across Africa, we have watched leaders rewrite constitutions to extend their rule, cage their critics, and call the result democracy. Cameroon amended its constitution in 2008 to remove presidential term limits, which is how a man who should have left office decades ago remains at the top. Our continent has paid for that arithmetic in stolen decades, shattered economies, and young people who gave up on home.

Yet we have proof that a better path exists. Botswana has held regular elections since independence and has used them to build one of the most stable and prosperous economies in Africa, anchored by property rights, prudent management, and institutions that outlive individuals. Mauritius has alternated power peacefully and built a diversified economy that the rest of the continent studies. Ghana has survived contested elections through courts and an independent electoral commission that kept the peace when tempers ran high. Senegal, in 2024, showed the world that an incumbent's attempt to delay a vote could be defeated by citizens, courts, and a determined civil society. Senegal did not win that moment through luck. It won because its people refused to accept that the calendar belongs to the president.

So what must Cameroon do? First, the state must release every peaceful protester and political prisoner held since 2018, and it must end the exclusion of candidates like Maurice Kamto. A vote without credible opponents is a rubber stamp with a ballot box attached. Second, the electoral body must be genuinely independent, with transparent voter rolls, publicly available results at polling stations, and tallies that can be checked by citizens and observers. Third, the media must be free to report the campaign without fear of state retaliation. Fourth, exiled political figures must be guaranteed safe return and the right to campaign. And the judiciary must stop acting as an extension of the presidency. These are not radical demands. They are the bare minimum of good governance, and any government that refuses them has told its people exactly what it thinks of them.

To the civil society groups, lawyers, church leaders, trade unions, and student associations of Cameroon: you are the first line of defense. Document every irregularity. Train poll monitors in every constituency, especially in the north. Build parallel tallies so that no result can be quietly rewritten. Demand that the electoral calendar be honored and that no further postponement be accepted. Make the RDPC defend its record in public, town by town.

To the African Union and the regional bodies that claim to protect democratic norms: stop issuing vague statements about "concern." Send observers with the authority to report what they see, and insist that their findings be published. Democracy is not a favor we ask from our leaders. It is the price of their office.

And to every Cameroonian reading this in Douala, Bamenda, Garoua, or the diaspora: the regime is counting on you to get tired. It is counting on fear to keep people home and cynicism to keep them quiet. Do not give it either gift. Register. Verify your name on the voter rolls. Bring your neighbors. Protect your vote like it is the last one you will ever cast, because for a country where the same man has ruled for four decades, it may feel that way.

Paul Biya has spent his career convincing the world that Cameroon cannot survive without him. February 7, 2027 is the day Cameroonians can prove him wrong. Show up. Stand in line. Count every vote. The future is not his to schedule.

Based on reporting by RFI