The office of vice-president and the reform of the presidential succession system in Cameroon

This article offers a critical analysis of Cameroon’s 2026 constitutional revision, which created the post of vice-president intended to ensure presidential succession. The author acknowledges the need to reform an overly complex vacancy mechanism, but denounces serious logical flaws in the adopted text. Institutionally, he argues that the vice-presidential post is ill-suited to Cameroon’s semi-presidential system, as it was designed for presidential or federal regimes. Moreover, the post’s creation remains purely discretionary, since the president retains the choice of whether to appoint a vice-president at all. The author identifies a fundamental contradiction in combining two incompatible models—the American “successor president” and the French “interim president”—thereby creating a potentially destabilizing triangulation of power. Furthermore, a vice-president appointed without direct democratic legitimacy could exercise a full presidential mandate without any term limitations, a major constitutional paradox. The author concludes that this revision, adopted hastily and without rigorous scientific expertise, fails to meet the deeper aspirations of Cameroonian society.