Cameroon is due to hold its long-delayed parliamentary and municipal elections on 7 February 2027, after President Paul Biya signed a decree calling voters to the polls.
The decree, signed on 9 November, sets the two elections for the same day. Voters will choose members of the National Assembly and municipal councillors. The polls have been postponed twice, extending the terms of the existing representatives.
Elections Cameroon, the body responsible for organising the vote, said polling stations would open from 8am to 6pm. The legislative election is for the 180 seats in the National Assembly, while the municipal contest will renew councils across the country’s 360 municipalities.
A new date after repeated delays
The last legislative and municipal elections were held in 2020, with representatives originally elected for five-year terms. The extensions meant that the current officeholders remained in place beyond the expected end of their mandates.
Legislators’ terms were extended until 20 December 2026, while municipal councillors’ terms were extended until 28 February 2027 unless elections took place earlier. Under the constitution, an election to a new National Assembly must be held between 40 and 120 days after the parliamentary extension expires.
There are 90 days between the signing of the decree and the scheduled vote. Cameroon’s electoral code requires a minimum interval of 90 days between the formal calling of the electorate and polling day.
The electoral body’s provisional register contained 8,238,778 voters at the end of the annual revision in August 2026, including 252,830 people newly registered during that revision. The total included voters registered abroad. The lists still required checks and corrections, including for possible duplicate entries.
Political backdrop
The planned elections follow a disputed presidential contest in October 2025. Cameroon’s Constitutional Council declared Biya the winner, but opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary claimed victory and alleged fraud. Biya, who has been president since 1982, was sworn in for another term.
Opposition-led protests followed that election. A human rights group that interviewed relatives, lawyers and opposition members reported that security forces used lethal force and made mass arrests. It also reported that some protests had turned violent. The group’s account concerned events in 2025, not incidents at the forthcoming polls.
On 27 October 2026, the territorial administration minister ordered a three-month suspension of the activities of Tchiroma’s party, the Cameroon National Salvation Front. The order cited alleged calls for insurrection, incitement to violence and other public-order concerns. Tchiroma rejected the allegations and challenged the suspension as an abuse of power.
The party had already announced a boycott of the legislative and municipal elections in February 2026, before the suspension. Tchiroma reaffirmed that position on 2 November, saying the conditions for a credible process had not been met. Other opposition parties questioned whether the suspension would hinder candidates’ preparations; its practical effect on nominations remains unclear.
The parliamentary contest will also test the balance in an assembly where Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement won 152 of the 180 seats in the 2020 election, including reruns in some constituencies. The municipal vote concerns a separate level of representation, choosing councillors for local authorities.
For parties and the electoral administration, the decree provides a fixed date for preparations, including candidate lists and the organisation of two ballots. Charity leader Nkopipie Kodjo has called for a new generation of political leaders, while business owner Henri Etene has called for more effective governance and parliamentary debate on economic and development concerns.
