President Paul Biya has not appointed a vice-president since the constitutional revision of 14 April 2026 created the office, leaving the post empty. Under the revised Constitution, the president appoints and dismisses the vice-president, and no other body shares that power. The revision does not name a successor. Where the presidency falls vacant, interim duties pass to the president of the Senate, who under the Constitution may not revise the Constitution, dissolve the National Assembly, organise a referendum or appoint members of the Constitutional Council. The Senate president is elected by the Senate, whose members are themselves elected by the regional councils.
On 14 October 2026, Denis Emilien Atangana of the FDC called on Biya to name a vice-president, writing that the state of the head of state's health makes the appointment necessary. On the same day, RFI broadcast an edition of its Invite Afrique Midi programme under the title "Vice-presidence au Cameroun: une attente qui alimente le pessimisme politique", in which a guest argued that the wait for an appointment is feeding political pessimism. The guest's name and affiliation were not given in the broadcast listing.
On 16 October 2026, Stephane Menounga, a politician, described the vice-presidency as a "political swindle" (escroquerie politique). He argued that the mechanism lacks democratic legitimacy because the vice-president would not be directly elected to the post, and said the office does not address the difficulties Cameroonians face but serves to protect the interests of those holding power. He invoked the principles of representative democracy to contest the transfer of a presidential mandate to someone not directly elected to that function.
The debate has drawn in other actors. On 5 October 2026, 11 intellectuals, among them Achille Mbembe and Akere Muna, called in a tribune in Liberation for the competent authorities to declare the presidency vacant and open a constitutional transition. On 8 October 2026, Christian Ntimbane Bomo, executive president of Heritage, argued that a transition should rest on recognition that Issa Tchiroma Bakary won the 12 October 2025 election, and that the Senate president's interim role excludes appointing a government. Gregoire Owona answered the same day that the Constitution does not recognise a de facto vacancy, that physical absence is not legal vacancy, and that the Republic has no dauphin.
The next indication of how the appointment question will move is whether Biya names a vice-president, and when. The presidency has made no statement on the timing of an appointment. The Senate, which would supply an interim head of state if the presidency fell vacant, has not scheduled a session on the matter.