Cameroon sets Sunday 7 February 2027 for its twice-delayed legislative and municipal elections
President Paul Biya has set Sunday 7 February 2027 for Cameroon's legislative and municipal elections, in a decree signed on Monday and read on state broadcasting. The joint polls — for the National Assembly's 180 seats and councillors across 360 municipalities — have been postponed twice from their original 2025 date, and lawmakers' extended terms end on 20 December 2026, about seven weeks before polling day, a gap the reporting read does not explain. The last joint elections were held on 9 February 2020.
Key points
- Polling day: Sunday 7 February 2027, 08:00–18:00, set by presidential decree signed on Monday 9 November.
- At stake: 180 National Assembly seats and councils in 360 municipalities; the last joint polls were on 9 February 2020.
- The vote has been postponed twice from 2025; deputies' extended terms end on 20 December 2026, weeks before polling day.
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- It is the first national ballot since the disputed October 2025 presidential election and its crackdown.
What happened
Cameroon has waited two extra years for these polls. The February date lands 90 days after the decree — the minimum the Electoral Code allows — and after the expiry of the deputies' extended mandate, leaving a gap no official in the reporting read has explained. The vote also follows the three-month suspension of the main defeated presidential candidate's party, which opposition leaders say weakens rival coalitions before the campaign begins.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- That the decree sets Sunday 7 February 2027, the seats and councils at stake, and the two postponements, from the agencies' reports of the decree.
What we don't know yet
- How the gap between deputies' terms ending on 20 December 2026 and polling day on 7 February 2027 will be handled — no source read explains it.
- The final voter register — the August figure is provisional and rests on one report's attribution to ELECAM.
- Any direct opposition reaction to the decree itself, and whether the suspended FSNC will be able to field candidates when its suspension ends.
Claim by claim
Show all claims (5)
Why this label: The date, the decree and the polling hours agree across the reports; the decree number given by one local copy was not confirmed against the Official Gazette and is not carried. 7 February 2027 is a Sunday — Cameroon's usual polling day.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The seat and municipality counts and the 2020 date agree across the reporting; counts of the ruling party's 2020 seats differ between reports and are not carried.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The two postponements and the extended-term dates are in the agencies' reporting of the decree and the earlier extensions.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The detention figure is lawyers' account via Human Rights Watch, carried as such; the suspension and the opposition's characterisation of it are reported as the minister's act and the opposition's position.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The register figures rest on a single report's attribution to ELECAM; ELECAM's own release was not read directly.
On the ladder: the evidence so far sits low — early, single or social sources. We publish the claim as a claim, never as fact.
Why it matters
Local and parliamentary mandates across Cameroon have run on extensions since 2025. The February date finally fixes when 180 deputies and 360 councils will be chosen — and on what register, and with which parties free to organise, after a disputed presidential election year.
Background
Show the background timeline (6)
Cameroon's last joint legislative and municipal elections.
The polls fall due and are postponed, first to early 2026; deputies' and councillors' terms are extended.
Biya's disputed presidential re-election is followed by protests and a crackdown.
A second postponement, with no new date set.
The territorial administration minister suspends Issa Tchiroma Bakary's FSNC for three months.
Biya signs the decree setting 7 February 2027.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
- Latest
Published. Basis: the agencies' reports of the presidential decree, in agreement on the date and the postponements.